Gossip

[nerd4hire]

Gossip gets a bad rap. Some don't mind it so much though.

One of those Algonquin Round table types (I think it was George S Kaufman) thought an interest in gossip was a sign of intelligence.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth said, "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me."

Gossip does have it's practical uses

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends. ~Benjamin Franklin

and people's tendency to gossip is pretty much inevitable.

Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell. ~Shana Alexander

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. ~Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, July 1735

A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way. ~John Tudor

Some people just plain don't like Gossip.

It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper. ~Errol Flynn

and it does have it's negative side

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues. ~Bertrand Arthur William Russell, On Education

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. ~Spanish Proverb

It can even be a little scary

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: Their measurements are being taken and compared. ~Erica Jong

Some advise against gossip

What you don't see with your eyes, don't witness with your mouth. ~Jewish Proverb

But if you're going to do it, do it right

If it's very painful for you to criticize your friends - you're safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that's the time to hold your tongue. ~Alice Duer Miller

Do not repeat anything you will not sign your name to. ~Author Unknown

Who brings a tale takes two away. ~Irish Proverb

and appreciate it for what it is

When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars. ~Edgar Watson Howe, Country Town Sayings, 1911

The biggest liar in the world is They Say. ~Douglas Malloch

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true. ~Winston Churchill

and anyway maybe we have no one to blame, but ourselves

The easiest way to keep a secret is without help. ~Author Unknown


A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run. ~Ouida

but what the heck.

Show me someone who never gossips, and I'll show you someone who isn't interested in people. ~Barbara Walters

 

[Faith]

I don't think that there is anyone who can claim not to have gossip. I must admit I love good gossip, but you have to be prepared for gossip about you going round. Its the rules. If you can dish it out you have to be prepared to take it.

I'd love to say i've never taken part in any malicious gossip, I do try and stay out of it if it gets bad, but that depends on who its about. If its about someone I really dislike then i'm honest enough to admit that i've done it.

 

[Xander]

I love it. Yeah im sure people gossip about me but I probably know what its about (unless its crazy) and I learnt a while ago not to care too much about what people think of me.

Have some scandelous gossip on both of my brothers, which Im just waiting to use. Think I might use the one on my big brother when my parents go on holiday if he tries to have his girlfriend over all the time again. Lets just say he hasn't been the most faithful person 😉

 

[David's Girl]

I hate being left out of stuff, so if there's gossip going around then I'd love to hear it, but if people gossiped about me I would be really annoyed. Then again I usually stay out of stuff, so the only gossip about me is that I'm a massive Buffy fan, which isn't really something you could use for blackmail, so I think I'm OK 😛

 

[Anchovy]

Oh, man. I love gossip in general...in the sense that I like to know every little detail....but I don't like the malicious, nasty kind of gossip with no other purpose than to hurt people. And unfortunately, that's the kind of gossip you get all lot of the time at an all-women's university.

 

[eponinethen]

Yeah I love gossip, heh. I go to a small school, and there's nothing better than gossiping about the other students (preferably my classmates). I love them so it's not evil or anything, heh, but it's fun. Although I know I'd be hurt if I heard what kind of things people gossip about me.. But that's the way it works, it's kinda worth it.. And I'm pretty sure my real friends don't say mean things about me, what the other people say I don't really care about (well, actually, I know exactly what they say about me and they're just stupid so..).

 

[Rory]

Well, I have to say that I can really enjoy gossip from time to time. hehe.
But it really depends on what the gossip is about. I don't like it when someone talks really bad about someone else or if the gossip is a real secret and it can hurt that person that the gossip is about, if you know what I mean...

 

[polexia]

thanx for all the quotes N4H 😉! loved'em!!!

yeah, i have to own up to that, i do like to gossip... and yes, like faith said, you have to be prephered for others to gossip about you(and I KNOW that there have been gossip about me out there LOL... OMG...though i have had people tell me some of it even... it's so strange what people say, though not always suprising.)

i don't really know what is so attractive about gossip though, but there is some appeal to good gossip, spec about people i might not exactly love...

Is there a line between gossip and 'news'? (with news i mean, e.g hearing stuff from people about what has happend, like someone you know, getting really drunk and and doing stupid stuff .. an hearing stuff like that from people who where there..) i some times don't always see the differennce, is there one? there's gotta be one or? :wigglinge


:bigglasse

 

[eponinethen]

Lol yeah, there might not be a real difference.. More like.. gossip is meaner, heh.. While "news" are just the truth? Yea I don't know.. All I know is that I sometimes justify my gossiping by saying that there's nothing wrong with talking about people, their good and bad sides.. or by calling it "news", eh..

 

[SpikedBuffy]

Now, don't get me wrong, everybody gossips... and I will defintely say that I have gossiped many times.

But, I voted for "I hate it!" The town that I come from is very tiny, and therefore, the residents have nothing to do but poke their nose into each other's business and gossip about it. For example, my boyfriend and I found out we were engaged because somebody started that rumor and told it to his parents. It was news to us! And we were not engaged. But, if one person starts it, it becomes the town news and must be spread.

stupid gossip.

 

[Innocence]

I love it. People really thrive on it.

It amazing to know what you learn when you listen to gossip. I feel that I've noticed 80% of the time, the gossip is true. Everyone is going to be the center of gossip at some point in their life, so you just should deal with it.

 

[Tainted Hope]

Me and my cousin made a pact when we were itsy bitsy never to gossip.

I turned around and told everybody. 😉

It's just something to do- you'd never know ANYTHING about ANYBODY unless you gossiped, and as a naturally curious (obsessively nosy ^^) person, I find out as much as I can. But I only spread it around to people who are inadvertintly involved, or that I know and trust- especially if it's malicious. And I try to always keep in mind that what other people say isn't gilded in gold- the opposite, rather. (Is silver opposite of gold? If it is, think of something horribly repulsive).

I think gossip can be very interesting and fun, as long as you keep a couple guidelines and you know who you can trust with some gossip you HAVE to spill, but don't want everyone to know.

But I ADORE gossip.