fiddlesticks fid·dle·sticks [fid-l-stiks] interjection
(used to express impatience, dismissal, etc.)
fiddlestick fid·dle·stick [fid-l-stik] noun
anything; a bit: "I don't care a fiddlestick for what they say."
I had to laugh when I saw this as the World of the Day; just a couple of weeks ago, I was telling an employee of a store where I purchase the Beej's food that there hadn't been any on the shelf in over a month. "Oh, yeah." the young woman replied. "That's one of those things we didn't get on the truck.".
I didn't believe her. "Fiddlesticks!" I said. "The office marks you out of the product?" I asked in a blustering manner, knowing how their inventory system worked. "Mmm-huh." the girl said with a surety I knew was feigned.
"Fiddlesticks!" I said again. I knew they had been having problems keeping employees, but it wasn't just cat food that wasn't being put out; I estimated that at least 10-15% of their shelving was empty. "Why would they mark YOU out of the product when your other store always has it in stock?" I went on ranting: "That's where I've been having to go to get it.".
"What was that you said to me?" asked the young woman, acting offended. I repeated what I had said, that the other store had it and..."No, at first, that 'fiddle-something'?" I started to explain, but about that time the mgr. showed up and wanted to know what was wrong. I repeated my problem and the girl interrupted "He wants some sort of fiddle cat food."
The manager looked at me like I was nuts and I laughed and told her I had said "fiddlesticks", not believing they didn't have any of the cat food and that I bet it was in the back room. The manager, a woman not quite my age but quite a bit older than her employee, laughed too. "Fiddlesticks" said the mgr. to her employee. "It's an old-fashioned and polite way of saying 'Bullsh*t'!"
Anyway, long story short, the mgr. consulted her inventory sheets and the young woman was sent to the back room to dig though the mountainous pile of stock to find the cat food. Sure 'nuff, they had loads of it. I bought a couple of cartons, enough to last the Beej for a few weeks.
From now on, maybe I shouldn't use such a polite term as "fiddlesticks". I've got plenty of the regular curse words in stock.
3 comments:
A lady who lived across the street from us in the first South Dakota town We lived in said that and behinnie.
I say well fiddly dee dee all time. Wonder what that gal would have thought about that? Or I might have said "Well bless your heart" I doubt she would have known I was being sarcastic.
I know people who say "Well, I'll swan!" Not sure if that's a substitute for "swear" or "swoon".
Can't remember if I wrote about it, but I had some problems at that store w/ a little gal not liking my Texas t-shirt- made me angry enough to call the corporate office on her. I don't know why, but they're sure having problems at that store, not just in finding help, but getting people who give half a crap. I was looking f/ some cream of mushroom soup the other day and found it on a shelf three rows away from where it's supposed to go, amongst things that weren't even close to being soup.
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