Stay out of it

To “stay out of it” means to not participate in a process or a decision.

Today's story: Sports betting
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Stay out of it

Today’s expression is to “stay out of it.” You’ll remember in today’s main lesson, we talked about sports betting . For years, betting on sports was illegal in almost all of the United States, thanks to a national law. But the US Supreme Court ruled that, according to our Constitution, regulating sports betting is a power that belongs to the states. The federal government—the national government—has no power to regulate sports betting. The Supreme Court said that the national government must stay out of it.

Stay out of it means, in this case, they can’t participate in a process or a decision. They must stay out of it means, they don’t get to be part of the decision-making process. In the US, the Constitution lists several powers that are given to the national government. If something is not listed in those powers, then the national government has to stay out of it. The national government must not participate. For example, robbery. If I break into my neighbor’s house and steal something, that’s breaking a state law. The national government cannot pass laws against robbery; only the states can do that. The national government has to stay out of it. They cannot participate. Likewise, only the national government can issue a currency. If the state of Idaho wanted to issue its own currency, that would be illegal. Issuing and regulating the currency is a national activity; states have to stay out of it.

Parents of adult children, this is for you. Do you have an opinion about the romantic partners your adult children have chosen? Did you ever feel the temptation to give your son or daughter some frank advice about their boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife? If you ever felt that temptation, I hope that you also chose to stay out of it. I hate to break it to all you parents, but your kids probably want you to stay out of it. They don’t want you as an active participant in their choice of a spouse.

Right around when I graduated from college, poker was extremely popular in the United States. I had friends who would carry poker chips with them whenever they traveled anywhere, just in case the chance to play presented itself. I always stayed out of it. It wasn’t bad; I just didn’t want the temptation. I didn’t want to lose the money. I had never gambled except for the most friendly wagers of a dollar here or there among friends, and I didn’t want to start with cards. So I always stayed out of it. I just didn’t play poker, not online, not in person.

It’s very common to use “stay out of it” is if you personally don’t want to take sides in an argument. Have you ever been friends with a couple, and then the couple breaks up? It can be awkward if they each start complaining to you about the other, post-breakup. In that case, you probably want to stay out of it. You don’t want to take sides, especially if you want to be friends with both of them in the future. Plus, they might get back together! Then you’ll really be glad you stayed out of it.

The workplace is full of potential controversies to stay out of. Two people are competing for a promotion. My advice for you? Stay out of it. You don’t want to make enemies of either one of them. Big tech companies often have internal message boards for people to discuss issues. I’ll never understand that; it’s not part of my company culture. But every so often a discussion on these message boards boils over into a huge public controversy.

If I were working at a company with an internal message board, and there were big debates about politics or something, I would stay out of it. I wouldn’t choose sides; I wouldn’t participate. I would say, the workplace is not where we solve the world’s problems via message boards. I would stay out of it.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote of the week is about gambling. It’s by the poker player Terrence Murphy. Here’s what he says: “A gambler never makes the same mistake twice. It’s usually three or more times.” Yikes! That’s what I’m afraid of with gambling, making the same mistake three times or three hundred times.

This quote is a play on words because it’s a common saying to say, “I’ll never make the same mistake twice.” That means you always learn from your mistakes. But this quote means the opposite: gamblers never learn from their mistakes. “A gambler never makes the same mistake twice. It’s usually three or more times,” says poker player Terrence Murphy.

See you next time!

You know, of all the expressions we’ve talked about on Plain English—now almost 350 of them—I think “stay out of it” might come the closest to being my motto in life! If you were looking for one motto that explains my behavior in life, “stay out of it” might be it. I’m so non-confrontational.

Okay, that’s all for today. Great job reaching the end of another lesson. We’ll be back again on Thursday with another free lesson. Thursday’s is fun, it’s all about duty-free shops. I bet you haven’t thought about those in a while. We’ll talk about duty-free shopping and the one place in the world where duty free was thriving in 2020.

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Story: Sports betting