To be completely honest, I’ve never heard the phrase “stir crazy” in my life until today. Well, I’m sure that I’ve heard it before, but I’ve never really taken notice. All the towns in the surrounding 30 miles of me have been shut down since Day Thirty-Two due to inclement weather. Because of this, I’ve noticed that everyone constantly mentions how “stir crazy” they’re quickly becoming on their Facebook statuses. I realize at this point that “stir crazy” has pretty much the same meaning as “cabin fever.” I understand the concept. However, I don’t really understand the term – I only have a few guesses. One, the “stir” could be referring to a pot of soup or macaroni or stir-fry or something that has to be stirred occasionally if you don’t want it to get stuck to itself. That could make some sense – you have to be active and doing stuff or you go crazy… seems logical. Two, “stir” could be referring to some sort of anagram. “Sitting Tragically In Retirement”? That makes some bit of sense. Or maybe “Something That Irritates Roger”? I guess your name would have to be Roger, but that could potentially work as well. Three, “stir crazy” could have been a complete accident. Maybe someone tried to say “stark hazy” or “store daisy” or “Patrick Swayze” while they were eating a hamburger or something, and was just misunderstood. Either way, I’m starting to get a bad case of cabin fever.

P.S. – So, after looking it up on the ever-reliable Wikipedia, I found that “stir crazy” refers to “a prisoner who became mentally unbalanced because of prolonged incarceration.” Apparently “stir” used to be a slang word for “prison”. Regardless, if the situation of all of my friends on Facebook is that they feel that they are becoming as mentally unbalanced as a prisoner serving a lifetime sentence, then I think they are being a tad bit dramatic.