"I was thinking in my head..."

[auserna]

Or, "in my mind I thought..."

I mean where else would you be thinking? Your left arse cheek? We don't say, "I was walking with my feet," or "I blinked with my eyelids," do we?

AIBU to find this tautology ridiculous and a bit annoying? (And no, I don't have anything better to do today.)

I think it is done for emphasis, to highlight and acknowledge the subjectivity and interiority of the thought process, often in circumstances where that thought process was wrong, or bore no connection to objective reality.

I've seen it with my own eyes. I heard it with my own ears. I heard it come out her mouth. Plenty of examples

As opposed to thinking out loud, surely.

I agree with you @auserna , along with the I was (a bit) sick in my mouth.

When you are a bit sick in your left big toe let me know

No, "sick in my mouth" means, specifically, that I kept it in and swallowed it back. Which is why I had to tell you; you mightn't have noticed. Sorry.

Pan frying also annoys me..
Dry fry , shallow fry , deep fry are all fine descriptions but they all need a pan .
The only exception is air frying but people always say air fry if that's what they mean .

Well no because the purpose of saying "I was a bit sick IN my mouth" is to point out that the sick was kept in and swallowed, not spat out etc. What you are talking about it being sick FROM your mouth surely?

I don't think that's quite the same - that's basically saying you have "primary" experience of something, as opposed to hearing about it second-hand, reading about it, seeing it on TV, etc.

Yeah, but thinking out loud is basically talking. The "default" type of thinking is in your head, so that doesn't really need to be stated. A bit like reading; if you don't specify "reading out loud" it's assumed you mean reading in your head.

Yes, agree with this (much as I hate the expression!).

We are getting less literate with every passing year

Agree with this. I guess they generally mean shallow fry. "Oven bake" (or "baked in the oven") is similar.

To me, in my head means not thinking out loud? And usually theres a reason for silent thinking....

Predictable high proportion of "YABU" votes from all the people that automatically object to any language/grammar-related kvetches on MN.

Had to say YABU @auserna

We all know men who think with their penis and people who talk out of their arse, so until the autopsy they may indeed think in the left arse cheek.

Yes. I also really can’t stand the “for me,
personally, I..” PICK ONE.

Haha! - I almost mentioned the "thinking with penis" exception as a disclaimer in my OP.

(I nearly wrote "thinking with his penis", but of course these days it could just as easily be "thinking with her penis".)

I would think pan fry on a menu, using fish as an example, is opposed to deep frying fish like at the fish and chip shop.

Another example is pan fried noodles that are crispy opposed to wet boiled noodles. Or pan fried veg.

Plenty people think with their dick.

My left arse cheek is extremely lucid, thank you very much

But "wet boiled" noodles are, er, boiled. Not fried.

Having said that your point about fish is probably correct.

So is mine, but I do wonder about the right one sometimes. It operates under the delusion that it's still a size 8.

I voted YANBU originally and then changed my mind after reading the responses. It's an inelegant turn of phrase, but along the same lines as thinking to myself, thinking aloud etc.

As opposed to thinking out loud

See upthread.

More seriously, they do talk about the gut being like a second brain (and as an IBS sufferer I can concur with that).