Thursday, October 18, 2007

A nervy question

Why do people speak of someone "having a lot of nerve" when they do things that are rude, stupid and/or likely to lead to pain and suffering?

Wouldn't someone with an excess of nerves be more inclined to avoid pain-producing scenarios and hide under the bed?

5 comments:

StayAtHomeKat said...

people who do hurtful things are said to 'have a lot of nerve' because such actions as theirs could bring retaliation down upon their heads and so they must be 'nervy' 'brave' to go ahead and do such anyway

StayAtHomeKat said...

btw- don't you think you could add your sad library experience to the Forgotten Authors blog

and btw- that library sure had a lot of nerve to do such a terrible thing

Eastcoastdweller said...

But nerves transmit pain. The more nerves, the more pain transmitted. The more sensitive one is to pain, the less likely one would be, seems to me, to want to "bring it on."

Re: the sad library. That's a great idea. I have let that blog languish, but I do intend ...uh-oh, I dare not make another blog promise!

Anonymous said...

And so it is with cliche...

I'm all for hiding under the bed...or making a fort with the pillows and blankets and a chair, and not letting in anyone but the ones we like, and eating a whole bag of cookies together...

Eastcoastdweller said...

Sounds like lots of fun! More fun than being nervy.