When someone says 'That's interesting,' how do you know if it is interesting-good or interesting-bad?,

In response to last week’s question, "When someone says 'That's interesting,' how do you know if it is interesting-good or interesting-bad?," my temple friend Richard advised, "There is an old Chinese curse: 'May you live in interesting times.'  Given the preference for orderliness in the Chinese culture, 'interesting' is bad. I’m going to assume that after many thousands of years, they know more than I do on this subject.  Well, that and the fact that I love Chinese food, which merits giving them at least the benefit of a doubt."

My dad's beach buddy Bob counseled, "You obviously go with the sentence that preceded it," while my birthday bud Jon observed, "If it’s your therapist or doctor, it’s bad."  My writing and sailing friend Rich concurred, "I usually go with profession,  when your doctor, for instance, squeezes some part of your anatomy  and you let out a scream and the Doctor goes 'hmmm, that’s interesting,' you can bet what comes next is going to be bad."

My collaborative friend Tricia shared, "I tend to use the word interesting when I'm at a loss for a positive word, which ultimately means not-so-good. Typically, I'll combine it with 'hmmmmm, that's interesting' to ensure I'm searching for something better to say, but can't!"

My social media friend Mark concluded, "If it starts a conversation, it is good. If it stops one, it is bad."  To this, my photographer friend Thomas recommended, "Ask yourself, was it interesting?" My cycling friend Ted wrote, "When you make some new food and someone says--'That's Interesting' --BAD!!  When you watch a documentary on PBS and it's 'Interesting'--Good!!

My cousin Wes pointed out, "It may be only interesting to them."  My equestrian friend Royce contemplated, "Now that's interesting!..... any further dissertation would be anti-climatic."

My production management friend Ray recalled, "I can usually tell by the tone of the voice and the accompanying facial expression.  I learned to discern because I had a good teacher as a boy growing up - my next door neighbor - Zelda Topolosky.  Mrs. Topolosky was a master at using one word to mean good, bad and you had better be wearing boots.  Her word was "amazing".  It wasn't until years later I learned the word was not spelled with 3 a's in the middle "amaaazing".  Thanks for the reminiscence of some very good days in my life."        

And my temple friend Bob shared, "If it is really interesting to that person, they will want to continue talking about it.  If someone says, "that's interesting" and changes the topic, then, yes, it means that they recognize that it might be interesting to someone, but not to them.  If someone says "that's interesting" and follows it up by wanting to continue talking about it, then they mean exactly what they said.  For example, you're in bed with a lady friend and she looks down and says 'that's interesting' and then proceeds to talk about the dinner you shared earlier, that's not good."

Then please send me your thoughts about this week's "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":

Should you take on a leadership role if you can't be a dictator? from my friend Andy

We don't stop laughing because we get old. We get old because we stop laughing.  Make it a priority to have fun and make others laugh.

Hal

Thanks to Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin for the inspiration for Hmmm.