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Friday, October 14, 2005

Everybody's working on, at, or around the weekend

A grammar guru I am not. (See?) I don't claim to have a grasp on the intricacies of the finer points of the more delicate side of the English language. Heck, I use words like "drooped" and "zooed" so you can't trust me when it comes to floating grammatically correct grammar past your grandma. But I have been known to turn a goofy phrase now and then.

Anyway, last weekend, I got to thinking about the Loverboy song "Everybody's Working For The Weekend." No particular reason, really. It just popped in my head -- probably because I heard the melody used in a toilet brush commercial or something. I don't know any of the words beyond the song's title. So my mindless mumbling went something like: Everybody's working for the weekend, everybody's got good reason to fly. I'm fairly certain that's not right.

But suddenly it dawned on me. Everybody's working FOR the weekend. Meaning, everyone works hard all week just to get to the weekend so they can enjoy it. Ah ha! I always thought of it a different way. Of course, I never really gave it much thought at all. But I always thought about it in the way you'd understand, "What are you doing for the holidays?", "You up to anything for the weekend?", and so on.

See, I figured it meant that everybody's working ON the weekend. I always thought the song was about how Americans are workaholics, and never take any time off, and, well, work for the weekend. Apparently I was wrong. Again, my poor grasp of grammar and the English language fail me. Foil me. Foibles.

And as I look back on this post, I realize I've said basically nothing in four paragraphs. Umm, so what are you doing for the weekend?