My wife and I, since we’d been in lock-down with each other, oh, these past
nine years, have developed a bit of shorthand. If one of us says something
the other has heard so many times before that tears of boredom flow, the
victim has a right to protest. The victim says, “That’s on the tape.” As in,
that’s on your tape—the list of stories and obsessions you’ve rewound so
often I could sing along with them in my sleep.
-- Mark Schone
A customer-facing skills course I went on, many years ago, used the word “tape” to describe pervasive habits of speech.