I remember as a lad being taught that “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  Or, as I later learned, you could also say “interesting”.  It turns out that interesting can be a deceitful, or perhaps misleading word.  I, not unlike you I suspect, have had occasions through the years when I encountered one of those special (another one of those words) people that insisted on anointing me with their wisdom, going into great detail about something totally devoid of interest to me.  It was a time, as my eyes glazed over that I frequently reached into my vocabulary and plucked out the word Interesting.  It’s the least I could do.  I couldn’t really just stand there saying nothing now could I?

But here’s the catch.  What if it is interesting?  Now what do you do?  Would it be more convincing that you are sincere if you said “that is really interesting”?  I doubt it.  You are still on a slippery slope here.  Now they don’t know if you are being sarcastic and you don’t know if they believe you.  Oh what a tangled web we weave etc. etc.

My wife used to use the word. A lot. Oh sure, there was a time in the earlier days when she would actually engage me in conversation by interjecting pithy comments such as “and your point is”, or “why would I care about that”, or “are you serious”.  But it didn’t last.  Once it was determined that our relationship was on solid ground, her frequent response to one of my enlightening observations would be, well, interesting.

I understand the word was first used back in the late 1700’s but don’t know by whom or in what context.  Perhaps they were uttered by King George III upon being presented with the Declaration of Independence.  Or, maybe it was Ben Franklin, standing out there with his kite upon being zapped by a lightning bolt, although I suspect it would probably have been more along the lines of “son of a bitch, that hurt”.  Whoever it was, or whatever the occasion, I am sure it was spoken with the purest of intent. I am equally sure that many of you, at this very moment are sitting there thinking “Hummm, Interesting!  Just sayin.