“Have a good one.”
It’s a phrase many tend to use without bothering to clarify what “one” is: Does “one” refer to a day, a weekend, a holiday, a vacation, a birthday, an anniversary? And because one cannot be sure as to what “one” implies (I wouldn’t want anyone to think me an unscrupulous cad), I try to avoid using the too-often-uttered ambiguity; however, I have repeated the quasi-cryptic and annoying phrase. For example, recently, upon returning home with a bagful of groceries, I told Kathy (my wife), “Helen from Whole Foods, after ringing me up at the checkout counter, cheerily intoned, ‘Have a good one, Michael.’” Kathy replied, “Then you need to run straightaway back to Whole Foods and explain to Helen that I have a headache and that ‘a good one’ is not in your immediate future.” Upon my frowning, Kathy added, with too much irony and enthusiasm, “A cup of coffee can also represent ‘a good one.’”
That day, I learned a lesson. It didn’t rise to the level of a valuable lesson, but it was a lesson nonetheless: Not all “good ones” are created equal; they’re like everything else in life: a matter of expectations.
And so that’s my silly anecdote of the day. Everybody, have a good one!
Michael's Corner 
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