holy smoke

That sure got your attention. But truth be told, there are some things that make us utter that "mild expletive". Either I'm just easily shocked at things that I've not foreseen, or people just do a lot of crazy stuff. If you ask me, "Holy Smoke" (which can be traced back in 1800s) is a better expression of surprise (or disgust, to some extent) than, say, your jaw dropping on the floor. It gives the illusion that even when something short of a scandal is served, you can still utter something coherent such as "Holy Smoke!"

Of course, variations are widely accepted: Holy Cow! Holy Moses! Holy Macaroni and Holy Guacamole! Notice that the word "Holy" sets the tone and mood of the expression. You can utter "Cow" and it wouldn't make any sense, unless of course you add some strange combination of letters, then you get Cowabunga - which is more of an expression of excitement and is not really used when you find out your neighbor is having an affair with the mailman. It just doesn't work.

For grave situations, the expression can be expanded for more effect: Holy Smokin' Moses! But that's reserved for really really shocking revelations that may not even be allowed in the blogosphere.

Having said all that, I'm pretty sure, we'd all be uttering the expression or variations thereof, everytime my Holy Smoke radar picks up something blogworthy. Until then, you can find me Orble blog-hopping!

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