TSQNEA #9.2 - That ole chestnut again...

Leaves are not the only thing falling..
Originally uploaded by Ms Kat.

What is it about old chestnuts? Why do people bring them up all the time? I couldn't count the instances where I've heard* an acquaintance disdainfully refer to an "old chestnut" which had apparently been recently "brought up"!

Now, no one I ever met* had just finished a conversation with someone who'd just regurgitated a stale nut. They meant something else entirely. The "old chestnut" they were referring to meant something like "thing I think is bullshit that lots of people say and likely have been saying for quite some time now".

So my question is, put more specifically "why are those things called chestnuts?" I know there are lots of clever people on google who are happy to explain it to me at the click of a mouse, but I'm going to go ahead and guess.

Chestnuts are associated with old people. I dunno they eat them or something. There are Christmas songs about them, stuff about roaring fires and other old fashioned types of things. Old people are known to talk about old people stuff. Some of the stuff is the sort of stuff we pine for, wishing it was still like that. Some of the stuff is the sort of stuff that hasn't changed in all those years, and the other stuff is the sort of stuff we don't like, that a lot of people say and have been saying for quite some time now.

*Or read it in blog comments, and it's probably 7-10 times but I couldn't be sure because I don't pay that much attention to it.

*Or read the comments of in a blog.. if they met a chestnut regurgitator then I never heard about it.