"Don't get mad! Get Glad!"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've never heard that parentism.

JL

On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 9:59 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Don't get mad! Get Glad!"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does anyone else understand this slogan as a trivial rewording of the
> old parentism,
>
> "If you're getting mad, you'd better get glad!"
>
> like unto
>
> "Don't make me come ...!"
>
> "Your head is hard as as a rock!"
>
> "Can't we have anything nice around here?!"
>
> etc.
>
> My wife says that she knows the "glad" thing only as a commercial slogan.
>
> OTOH, I know the slogan as a disturbing reminder of a parentism often
> followed up by an ear-boxing, if I failed to delete any indication of
> anger - or even of mere annoyance - from my face quickly enough;
>
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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