Bless Your Heart

I've been laughing at the phrase for the last few days after my mom wrote in the comments "Bless Patches' little heart."  Bless your heart is such a great Southern phrase.  It can mean "well, you poor thing, things have just been rough for you" or it can mean "You are pathetic."  On Saturday, the Charlotte Observer had an article on the meaning of this phrase.  One part of the article goes:

Often [bless your heart] means the speaker is offering support and encouragement. But in certain circumstances, such as somebody being down and out, the Southern varnish can rub right off those usually polite words. Then, the plain meaning is "you poor, pitiful slob."

Wilder said he's gotten mail asking what "bless your heart" really means.

"I found out it means `you are a (poor) son of a b----.' It's a euphemism," he said.

It just makes me laugh!  A colleauge once told me that after you say "Bless his/her heart" you can say about anything else you want.  Examples:

Bless her heart.  Did you see what she was wearing last night?  (Translation:  Does the woman own a mirror?)

Bless his heart.  He really tries.  (Translation:  But he never succeeds.)

I always think of "Bless your heart" as being supportive, even when the person really and truly is in a pathetic state.  I just keeping having this image of poor Patches in our house tormented by cans of pennies and modified mouse traps trying to be a good dog, even when he is just wants to do what dogs do.  Bless his heart!  (I do think that the interpretation is of the first type: poor thing)

And while we're on odd Southern phrases, my favorite one is: Mama 'n 'em (pronounced: MamNEm, one word).  In fact, it sounds quite a bit like Eminem.  I shall use mama 'n 'em in a sentence: 

After church, we're goin' over to dinner at Mama 'n 'ems. 

Transalation:  After the mandatory religious services, we are going to have what the rest of the world calls lunch at my mother's house and those people who live with her.

Thanks, Brian, for my favorite Southern phrase ever!

Off to work.  Bleah.  Dave and I need another day to recover from the weekend!

8:15:52 AM