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Showing posts with the label manners

Goose Eyed

When someone sneezes, the most popular thing for someone in the United States to respond with is the phrase 'bless you' or 'god bless you'. There is one semi-popular alternative, gesundheit, which references health. While being more secular and thus more inclusive than the religious message that comes with a blessing, gesundheit is less often said. I have learned from following Penn Jillette's public persona that his family says the phrase 'that's funny' in place of 'bless you'. I do like that a bit and I am sure he would not care if I borrowed it as many of the other children in his kids preschool have according to his book , but that is Penn's thing, not mine. Sometime after realizing that there are no supernatural deities, only natural humans who like to think they are gods, I adjusted my habitual response to sneezing to gesundheit. It took me a little while to adjust, so I completely understand why some of my non-religious friends hold to