Which pantywaist schoolmarm pedantic nitpicker was taking issue on The Corner yesterday with “I could care less.” This is a lovely expression, chock full of the irony, worldliness, and just-slightly off-focus approach to the English language that makes American English so charming and vigorous.

I heard “I could care less” in the early 1970s, when I first came here, and have been using it ever since. The color, oddity, and contrariness of American English as spoken by ordinary people (my first six months here, I worked as a dishwasher) were part of what made me fall in love with this country. I’ve heard the same from other expats.

Another thing I remember from that first full-immersion introduction to U.S.

English was the expression, then current but since worn out: “I didn’t know whether to s*** or wind my watch.” (Also sometimes heard as “…or go

home.”) Jack Nicholson says it in some movie of that time.

Wonderful, colorful, American English.