The Bees Knees

         You must have heard it by now. That cry of achievement, enjoyment and delight so prevalent on the tongues of today’s youth. “Sick!”  they say, with more zest than grated lemon peel. Yes, “sick” is the new “cool”, although, of course “cool” will ALWAYS be cool.
It seems weird to think of “sick” as meaning good, however. I wonder if it’s part of the “bad means good” mindset where it’s apparently really good to be “Super Bad”.  It seems “sick = good” isn’t even all that new, as the term “sick” was used in that context as far back as 2005 in an article in Rolling Stone. And if it’s in Rolling Stone, it’s got to be cool. Or sick. Or bad... er... good. You know what I mean.
Given my middle-age sensitivities, I find the use of the word “sick” to identify something positive seems mildly disgusting, almost gnarly. (“Gnarly”, in this case meaning its original intent of “offensive” and not the 90’s edition when it meant sick... I mean cool.) Why can’t these young people use something lyrical and whimsical like “the bees knees” which was so popular with in the 1920’s? (It seems when bees collect pollen to make honey, they store it behind their knees, thus making them “suh-weet!”)
There are other choices, too. What about “Hunky Dory”? That one was good enough for us; it should be good enough for them. If they yearn to toss in trendy terms with an edge to them, maybe the young people can recycle sayings such as “rad” and “gear”. Seriously; people actually would say “Man, that’s really gear!”! I think it’s more kickin’ than 23 Skidoo.
The same goes for “nifty”. Now that was a cool word. Sadly the only time you see it used anymore is on quinquagenarian cougars’ T-shirts emblazoned in glorious glitter with the phrase ”Over 50 and Feelin’ Nifty!” Such a shame.... about the loss of the word, I mean “Groovy” is still one of my favourites. Sadly, I remember when it was groovy to say “groovy”. Now if you say “groovy” you sound like an old hippy, which hasn’t stopped me, although the cops sure do. It must be the tie-dyed VW micro-bus I drive.
One expression I found somewhat mystifying and that is “the cat’s pyjamas”. What in the world were they thinking? Have you ever tried to get a cat to wear pyjamas? Good luck. We had a cat that wouldn’t even allow us to put a collar on him. Trying to put bedwear on that one would have led to lethal hemorrhaging for one or both of us.. How this could be construed as a positive is beyond me.
The problem with a lot of these sayings is that they are absolutes. It is sick or cool or groovy or whatever or it isn’t. Some, however, have degrees. Take “dandy”, for example. As a word, dandy is pretty nifty because, although it means neat or swell or skookum, when you add “Jim” to it to make it “Jim dandy”, that means it’s REALLY neat or swell or skookum. The same goes for the word “keen”. Keen is as nifty as dandy because it’s got its own qualifier, as well. Things can be just plain old keen or they can be peachy keen, which is not only much keener than keen but is also somewhat fuzzy, apparently. If you prefer the fuzz-free variety, may I suggest “Nectariny keen”.
There is one saying that was once everywhere but is now like so last Tuesday. That is... or was, “phat”.  I thought that it meant the same as all the other cool synonyms but was recently informed it is an acronym for “pretty hot and tempting”, which to me sounds like a steak.  I should add that the informant I was getting the “down-low” from, a young lady named Mary, (not her real name. Kelsey is her real name), who advised us that she wasn’t sure if there was a comma after the word “pretty” which would change the meaning slightly. Is it/her/she pretty AND hot or just pretty hot? Personally, rather than “phat” I prefer “phull phigured.”
This just in; there’s a word that’s even newer than “sick” and that word is... are you ready for this? The word is “word”, as in “You got two tickets to the Nickleback concert? Word! What? You’re taking someone else? Word!”
“Word” seems to have arrived as an all purpose word to replace all those other cool and gnarly words. Some might see it as a plus; a word to use when the word you’re trying to think of just won’t spring forth from its hiding place somewhere in your cranium. (I HATE it when that happens!)
I hope the word “word” doesn’t catch on as a cool saying. It’s so...bland. I say we should go back to the vaults. All in favour of “the bee’s knees” say “SICK!”