Be Careful or you will look stupid

Last night on American Idol, a rejected contestant, departed the room by saying "be careful" to the judges. The judges, in their infinite wisdom, immediately took this as a threat. Paula Abdul even went as far as to scold the man for saying it. "You don't say that to people", she told him, like he was one of her talentless backup dancers. My question is, are they stupid or do they just play idiots on TV?

"Be careful" in many parts of our vast country is akin to saying, "drive safely" or "take it easy'. These are not meant to be threats. This may be hard for Hollywood types to believe but they are the same as saying, 'have a nice day".  Sure it may not be as catchy as, Seacrest Out" or as Simon likes to say, "be off with you" but we tend to not be flashy or in Simon's case, rude, when we bid a fellow human goodbye.

So Idol judges, next time you wander too far from the coastlines and into the heartland of America, you may want to review a list of local colloquelisms.

If not you risk hearing another rural saying, "you people couldn't pour pee out of a boot if the directions were written on the sole".