kind-of-a-thing

a rather new indecent intruder to decent spoken english is this 'kind-of-a-thing'.
probably our own version of a thingummy.

commonly used adjacent to nouns like:

1. i am standing next to this guy kind-of-a-thing.
2. what is this bracelet kind-of-a-thing?
3. he looks like musharraf kind-of-a-thing

but i hear it these days even without reference to 'things' or with reference to 'non-things'.

1. we shall meet at 4 o'clock kind-of-a-thing
2. what is this red kind-of-a-thing
3. let's watch Discovery kind-of-a-thing

this drop in speaking abilities is a little bewildering kind-of-a-thing.