SUPEREROGATION

"You want sympathy?  Look in the dictionary--it's between shit and syphilis."  That's advice from my brother Bode.

Yes, in my family, that would be the answer to one's complaining.  Growing up with my mother, we were taught to "just suck it up" and to keep on going.

I came home after an exhausting day and I was whining and my brother asked, "You want some cheese with that wine?"

I gave him a scornful look and feigning embarrassment, he said, "Oh, excuse me, I should elevate the language and warn you against your consistent supererogation."

I asked, "Now where the Hell did you get THAT one?"

He laughed and said, "I was watching an old What's My Line--and John Daly used it to describe Bennett Cerf--but I had to look it up!"