Could care less VS Could not care less - an irritating idiom.

[Bev]

Let's get this straight. When people say "Could care less" to mean they have no feeling about a given subject, it is wrong.

"I could care less that the Mexican across the road wrecked his car." I think this was the sentence that set me off. If you could care less, then that means you do actually have a degree of caring or feeling about the subject. So it goes directly against the emotion you are trying to convey.

If you could not care less, or couldn't care less, then you have no feeling or degree of care about the subject. It is impossible to care less than nothing. You were not bothered that the Mexican wrecked his car.

I've been researching this trying to find out if I'm right. It seems that "couldn't care less" originated in Britain in the early 40's - the other, incorrect version didn't come about until the 60's in the US.
I was gratified to see that grammarmatters.com fully agrees with me and even has a little graphic made up to illustrate the point.



I couldn't care less if you don't agree with me; I know I'm right.

[BryanVP]

[Bev]

Well, I can handle your putting gravy on biscuits (even if I do snigger behind my hand every time I think about it) but "could care less" irritates me to the point where my teeth clench and my lip curls when I see it.

[Steve B]

Originally Posted by odinsgal88

Well, I can handle your putting gravy on biscuits (even if I do snigger behind my hand every time I think about it)

We do not put gravy on biscuits! We put gravy on mashed potato's by first hollowing out the taters with the ladle then dumping about a quart of gravy on them. Then we take a biscuit and tear it in half with a satisfactory grunt. Then we slather about a half pound of butter on the biscuit and shove it into the tater/gravy mix gathering a big gob of the stuff on the biscuit and cram the whole thing into our mouths grunting like pigs while the excess dribble pours down our unshaven chins.

You British really have no clue about American custom and culinary delights and are totally lacking in class. No wonder we kicked yer ass in numerous wars.

Edit: I just realized I'm totally off topic in this thread. Plz disregard the above.

[Bev]

Originally Posted by Steve B

We do not put gravy on biscuits! We put gravy on mashed potato's by first hollowing out the taters with the ladle then dumping about a quart of gravy on them. Then we take a biscuit and tear it in half with a satisfactory grunt. Then we slather about a half pound of butter on the biscuit and shove it into the tater/gravy mix gathering a big gob of the stuff on the biscuit and cram the whole thing into our mouths grunting like pigs while the excess dribble pours down our unshaven chins.

You British really have no clue about American custom and culinary delights and are totally lacking in class. No wonder we kicked yer ass in numerous wars.

Edit: I just realized I'm totally off topic in this thread. Plz disregard the above.

It went off topic the minute the lolcats appeared.

Look, you just don't have biscuits, gravy and butter(?!) together in the same sentence, as refined and dainty as your description sounds. By all means put gravy on your mashed potatoes, (as long as it's brown, meat based gravy and not this white or red stuff - hint: that is called sauce) but do not put biscuits on there.

Biscuits are meant for dunking in coffee, or tea, if you really must ruin a good cuppa, but don't stick them on a roast dinner, for the love of sanity. You don't put butter on them either, unless it's a Rich Tea brand and you are over 95 with dentures.

Class, my dear, is knowing the difference between sauce and gravy.

Numerous wars? Numerous? Are we talking about the Boston Tea Party? It's no wonder we got our arses kicked in that - we were probably stunned into inaction by the sight of you people putting gravy around your biscuits instead of tea.