Lived from Virginia to Ohio, Indiana Illinois and Michigan, also heard "can't see the forest FOR the trees" which I always figures was a more colloquial change.
I haven't heard that exact phrasing before, and as a native English speaker born and raised in California, that wording sounds a little awkward to me. It does kind of sound like something my mom, who is from the east coast, would say. 😆
She also says "quarter of 8" when it is 7:45, which never made sense to me either. I usually hear quarter til 8 or quarter after 8 (for 8:15). Never quarter of. And whenever I point out that the phrase doesn't really make much sense, she does this whole hand motion to explain it, which just confuses me even more.
It's those Bostonians, man. Gotta watch out for them. They say weird stuff.
That made me physically recoil, "quarter of 8" just sounds so clunky.
99% of the time here, it's just directly stating the time. Sometimes a Gen x will say "half past" or "quarter past" but not often anymore. I've never heard "quarter OF"
The English phrase is "missing the forest for the trees"
Not quite the same as chess blindness. Possibly the opposite. It basically means: being unable to see (or ignoring) the bigger picture because you're too focused on minor individual details