Go Fly A Kite

What was said? “You may want to tell me to ‘go fly a kite!’”

Did someone really say that? Yes, in a meeting where a topic was being discussed at length.

What does it mean?   It’s telling someone to go away, leave you alone.

Origin:

Its origin isn’t very elaborate! It refers to flying an actual kite. The phrase originated back in the 1940s and it was very popular for decades to follow. Since flying a kite meant it would take some time for the individual to literally go somewhere where they could fly a kite – it was as simple as that! Go fly a kite was the way to tell someone to go do literally anything else but what they are doing in that moment. More common expressions that are similar in nature these days are go jump in a lake, go to hell (eek!), get lost, you name it.

I’m sure a phrase like this exists in most languages; in Arabic, there are two similar expressions that use extreme locations to get the point across, my favorite being “go sweep the desert” and “go tile the ocean.” They are meant to convey – you can go do the most inane, meaningless, futile activity and it would still be better than you being here!

April 21, 2024 is national “go fly a kite” day where they actually want you to fly an actual kite (celebrated on the 3^rd Sunday of April every year).

Sources

• https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/go-fly-a-kite
• http://www.kites.tug.com/Archive/kites/potpourri/go.fly.a.kite
• https://nationaltoday.com/go-fly-a-kite-day/#:~:text=Go%20Fly%20a%20kite%20Day%20is%20celebrated%20on%20the%20third,away%20or%20leave%20you%20alone.
• https://sports.yahoo.com/today-fly-kite-day-090352627.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANGNBT7YED3SV5iH5Fp5HlbTRYLDUUIknRG3go4HTgmGnOBec__amx2jrZLdmB-UAmIz1izT2caYi4o-z7RvwQV4S2NmHmvnC736pJOUETv9qVnouHIN3E5coGp1fGxQd43XrsfMjPWnYCf0YbPBrF_rXdtiGpncHWywA6mq86YB#:~:text=%22Go%20fly%20a%20kite%22%20is,to%20actually%20fly%20a%20kite.