Today, while making small talk with a veteran, I made the mistake of using the phrase "Cost an arm and a leg". He was a double amputee. FML
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Thanksgiving
Questions about your love life, a burnt turkey and the cousin who knows everything: Thanksgiving, a contact sport.
Today, while shopping, an old man came up to me and told me I should be ashamed for walking around fake limping, and that it's horrible to mock people who actually limp from serious injuries. I wasn't faking, I was born without my right leg and I was getting used to my new prosthetic one. FML
Today, I twisted my knee while cutting firewood with my grandpa. The pain was so crippling, I fell over screaming. His response? "Quit your bitching, I had my kneecaps blown off in Vietnam. They had to stitch 'em back on." He's never been to Vietnam, or even out of the country. FML
Today, I told a guy he should be ashamed of himself for parking in a handicapped space. He hit me with his prosthetic leg. FML
Today, my anatomy teacher was putting together a skeleton model for class. He had misplaced the leg bone, so I thoughtfully asked, "What's the matter, lose a leg?" Unfortunately, there's nothing thoughtful about asking that question to a guy with an amputated leg. FML
Today, at a mind-numbingly boring support session, everyone was talking about their hardships. One guy was talking about losing his leg in a car accident. I was half-asleep and asked without thinking, "Did you ever find it?" I almost shat my pants at the roomful of death glares that followed. FML
Today, as a nursing student, I needed to take a blood sample from someone and the veins on his arms weren't really easy to draw blood from. I asked him, "Can I please look at your legs?" It turns out he was amputated. FML
Today, I was pretending to be a mom with my friends, and I was joking how I bought them candy and that it cost me an arm and a leg, only to realize that the cashier only had one arm. FML
Today, at the airport, my mom began talking about how useless the war in Iraq was, and how dumb the soldiers that serve there were for enlisting during the war. The soldier at the vending machine near us caught my eye. I mouthed, "Sorry" and he mouthed, slowly, "You fuckin' better be." FML
Today, my 6 year-old daughter saw a man in a wheelchair whose leg had been amputated. She walks up to him and says, "What happened?" He answers kindly that he's a war veteran. She then responds, "Well then you deserve to get your leg blown off. You shouldn't be killing people." FML
Today, I accidentally asked a one-armed man which arm he wanted me to take blood from. He asked for a different nurse. FML
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Top comments
j11a01 16
Sorry op if guy took offense. I know a few amputees that would actually laugh and agree if you said that to them. People should stop getting offended so easily.
Tarlachia 33
I just wonder what it was exactly that cost an arm and a leg? I think that knowing this will determine if your use of that idiom is appropriate or not.
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Comments (44)
PoolDeadio 12
I call BS
foxpug 24
Why? It seems perfectly plausible that someone could make an awkward faux pas during small talk. That's the most common phrase to use when describing something with an exorbitant price attached to it. The US also has a lot of veterans with a variety of amputations. What the OP said is something that probably happens at least once a day in the states. I call no BS.
silentj46290 9
how is your brain not smart enough to work faster then your mouth?? I think we agree you deserved whatever kinda look he gave you
WreckeRalph36 18
OP I personally would've laughed and so would a few of my friends.
smoothies14 32
Really makes you think twice about what it means, huh?
KxHoneyCombxP 24
I would have peed myself laughing if I was that guy!
yellowzinnias 20
Sometimes we say stupid things without thinking. Last year I went to dinner with my uncle, his sister and her husband. Her husband said something about the Splenda I was using in my tea and I said, "Yeah, I know, it'll give me cancer, whatever." I had forgotten we were having dinner to celebrate my aunt's last round of chemo. I kept my mouth shut the rest of the night. I'm sure that guy recognized that you didn't even think about it before you said it.