so, that happened

[Ann Burlingham]

i was recently reading amy dickinson's _the mighty queens of freeville_,
in which she quotes her daughter as saying, after a disaster (the high
school madrigal group crashed through the stage floor), "Well, *that*
happened". (p. 170) the phrase is familiar to me - more perhaps as "so, that
happened", and i came across it again somewhere else in the last few days,
too, and both times wondered when and where this sprang from. I'm
familiar with it - not sure if i've used it - but i couldn't say where
it's from. in googling, i found a comment here
http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/narrative-phrases from
shadoeknight (about halfway down) that the usage was used in "state &
main" by alec baldwin's character. i'm guessing it didn't originate
there, but, unless i'm suffering from recency bias, it feels like a
newer phrase to me. is this a phrase you use? do you hear it or see it, too?


-ann burlingham

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