The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: Bjorn the Destroyer on February 06, 2007, 07:53:38 am
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As a word to signify something being agreeable. I.e. That is so clutch, or This band
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Also boss.
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Now you're cookin' with gas.
Although I think clutch would be better served as meaning "vestigal or unnecessary yet having devoted proponents." The Rolling Stones have become so clutch.
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Damn cort, way to find the stone in the beans. Put an onion on your belt, why dontcha!
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It's a perfectly cromulent word.
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linguistic discussion! somebody call muse of fire in here.
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This thread doesn't need a linguistic smackdown so much as it needs CortJstr to find the last thread along these lines so we can say we talked about this.
But, wtf, clutch? This word must have been in and gone out again without my noticing. Is this another one of those things about how old I am?
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Either that, or it means you don't know that many lame ass people.
Also, Crutch is a much finer word.
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wombat-- only if it can also be about how Young I am. Because I am not aware of this.
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Clutch had a very short and specific shelf life of about '88 -> '90 in NoCal.
Its orgin twin Hella, however, has continued to prosper. I imagine the only way to slip a clutch in now without drawing some raised eyebrows would be to combo the two, let's try it:
HELLA CLUTCH, DUDE!
*shudder*
No, sorry, I think clutch is dead. Inform the family and shut the machines down. Let's not frankenstein this one, Bjorn.
Condolences.
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Hella wasn't invented by Cartman?
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I propose we coin the phrase: "slap him like a peer".
The idea of devoting one's self to attaining a level of success only for the sake of being able to gain revenge on one of your persumed betters without moving inappropriately out of your social strata.
Such as "Yeah, I'm only two promotions away from being able to take Jenkins in Accounting and slap him like a peer".
Transmission out.
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Hella wasn't invented by Cartman?
Nope, my cousins (who are native to the SFO bay area, circa early '70s) introduced me to the term in 1982. Not sure where Parker/Stone came across it.
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This thread is just reminding me of one of the most sociolinguistically malformed constructions I have ever seen:
"Hella hecka wicked mad cool, yo!"
I believe this was on a sign posted by the campus Christian group while I was in college, but context has been frightened out of me. Gah. Nobody actually uses "hecka," right?
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At the very least, it seems redundant to hella
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guys... as long as we can agree that no one is Bringing Sexy Back.
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In working with children in middle schools, "hecka" is indeed in use, because they have not gotten over the fact that swear words are simply words that society denies because it refuses anger as a valid feeling.
Kid: Dude that's hecka lame. We bout to go dumb.
Me: What the crap.
Kids: Ooooooh, you said C-R-A-P.
Me: srsly, shut up kid.
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This reminds me, there are a couple of phrases I use constantly but want to replace:
1) "You guys" - I hate that I use this, especially when I apply it to a group of women. I do it all the damn time and I hate it. Being from Canada, y'all just doesn't work.
2) "Good stuff" - I picked this one up a couple years ago, and now I can't stop saying it. Someone will tell me about the work they've done, I say "hey, that's cool. Good stuff." Basically, anyone recounts a positive anecdote, and I'm all "good stuff." It's getting oooold.
I need help with these two. I need to replace them, and also, need to find a method of enforcing their replacement in my brain.
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I'd suggest "You fellows" stick with it when around lady-folk for the sake of irony.
Also, "Good times."
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That's so pail. It's bucket.
I CANNOT BROOK 'CLUTCH' BEING USED FOR ANYTHING BUT A EUPHEMISM FOR A LADY'S PINK SECRET
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1) "You guys" - I hate that I use this, especially when I apply it to a group of women. I do it all the damn time and I hate it. Being from Canada, y'all just doesn't work.
I don't think there is anything to replace that with. Over here we usually go with ya's, but that's probably a major step down. A few days ago I heard myself on a recording and I must've not heard myself speaking for a long time because I thought, holy shit I have a New York accent. It was so blatant it was nearly embarrassing. I should work on that, but certainly won't.
I like to use "bad livin'" whenever I can. Buddy loses a twenty dollar bill? Bad livin'. You bet money on the Chiefs? Bad livin'. Pulled over for broken headlight and arrested for suspended license? You bet that's bad livin'.
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I have recently realized the prevalence in my dialog of:
"I feel like..." when not really a feeling. Such as "I feel like we're out of milk, Matt."
saying that I feel (for something) "deep down." ie "something about sausages bothers me... deep down."
there is a third thing, but I don't remember what it is. I will soon.
also, the combination of this board and my ex girlfriend has permanently made me enjoy phrasing things in awkward ways. "That's a big one. The sandwich, I mean."
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Replace "you guys" with "youse guys".
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I go with "right on" in any positive response mode.
I think it is just about the most positive thing a person can say.
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I like to use "bad livin'" whenever I can. Buddy loses a twenty dollar bill? Bad livin'.
Whenever anything good happens in our lives my friends and I say "Clean livin'." But when things are bad now we say "Mean livin'."
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My best buddy and I have some fun with 80's pop culture references.
When a situation is stressful, it's "sweatin' to the oldies." As in, "oh man, when that cop pulled me over, I was totally sweatin' to the oldies." Also, often when we need a snack, one of us will say "I'm hungry like the wolf - you wanna grab something to eat?"
Also "no worries" is a hold over from her previous days living in Australia that has permanently worked it's way into my day to day parlance.
And as for the "you guys" replacements, what about "you folks?" Can I do that?
I like "bad livin'" I think I'll be using that one.
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Replace "you guys" with "youse guys".
Metalocalypse is pretty brutal.
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2) "Good stuff" - I picked this one up a couple years ago, and now I can't stop saying it. Someone will tell me about the work they've done, I say "hey, that's cool. Good stuff." Basically, anyone recounts a positive anecdote, and I'm all "good stuff." It's getting oooold.
The only way good stuff is bad is if you always either silently or verbally add the 'Maynard'. But if you really need a substitute, 'Aces' has always worked for me.
Page 2 so I guess we are doing this again, buckle up people, the fun train has pulled into whackytown.
ALSO: you guys...you peoples
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Metalocalypse is pretty brutal.
I don't know what that's supposed to mean. I am thinking "stereotypical gangster movie" here.
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Just stay up after Futurama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama) on Cartoon Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon_Network) and you'll find out (http://www.adultswim.com/shows/metal/).
I don't particularly endorse this, however.
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Just stay up after Futurama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama) on Cartoon Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon_Network) and you'll find out (http://www.adultswim.com/shows/metal/).
I don't particularly endorse this, however.
So is the Cartoon Network a bunch of "terrists" like Dubya says, since they spurred a bomb scare in boston?
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And as for the "you guys" replacements, what about "you folks?" Can I do that?
Hmm. With an all-female group, I think "folks" sounds more awkward than "guys." Maybe it flies with a mixed group, or maybe if you wore a cowboy hat and a bolo.
You know, now that I think of it, this is a big problem with English. The plural of 'you' is 'you?' What the fuck is that? Are you to supposed to use hand gestures or something?
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I've come to the realization that the proper gender-neutral replacement for gender-specific group terms like "you guys" or "you girls" is "party people".
"Hey, you guys but actually some ladies too, come over here... there's a screening of The Queen."
"Hey, gals plus a guy, come over here... there's a screening of An Inconvenient Truth."
OR
"Hey, party people, come over here... there's a screening of The Fog of War."
The clear difference.
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"Hey, party people, come over here... there's a screening of The Fog of War."
Come on, party people, put your hands in the air.
Come on, party people, lets watch a bunch of documentaries.
Also, the roof is on fire because it was built under a hole in the ozone layer.
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Come on, party people, put your hands in the air.
Come on, party people, lets watch a bunch of documentaries.
Also, the roof is on fire because it was built under a hole in the ozone layer.
Can'd.
Apparently R2DTrousers comes from a town populated by nothing but R. Lee Ermey's and The Miz's.
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My caledonian eyebrow hoists quizzically at your obscure cultural references.
(clarification: I have two eyebrows and both of them are caledonian)
Edit: gah Full Metal Jacket I saw that. Fair enough.
Everybody show know the genius of R. Lee Ermey. But the Miz is one of those reality show jerk-offs with a fauxhawk and he says "hoo-ra" a lot. Apparently because he either thinks he's a marine or just really wants to meet some.
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Come on, party people, put your hands in the air.
Come on, party people, lets watch a bunch of documentaries.
Also, the roof is on fire because it was built under a hole in the ozone layer.
I keep giving you cans. That is what I do.
Also, maybe I'll just start using vous. Everyone round here would get it. No. No. Party People is definitely better. I'll report back after a couple applications.
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You know, now that I think of it, this is a big problem with English. The plural of 'you' is 'you?' What the fuck is that? Are you to supposed to use hand gestures or something?
I thought that Spanish (in this hemispere) didn't have a plural version of you (familiar) either. Or do they just use ustedes?
Anyway. I like diznoofuses. As in "gizzizup, my diznoofuses."
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Anyway. I like diznoofuses. As in "gizzizup, my diznoofuses."
You just received the Phil Hartman Memorial Tiny Can of Dr. Pepper.
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You just received the Phil Hartman Memorial Tiny Can of Dr. Pepper.
I'd like to thank August, the Academy, and the good people at Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor. And of course, Colon Blow.
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I thought that Spanish (in this hemispere) didn't have a plural version of you (familiar) either. Or do they just use ustedes?
Anyway. I like diznoofuses. As in "gizzizup, my diznoofuses."
I'm not one to speculate on the espanol. But in Brazilian Portuguese, we do have plural "you"s, but we basically don't care to use them because the Portuguese use them and we don't care much for anything from Portugal with the exception possibly of fortified wines.
Friday fun fact: Did you know that in America, they tell Polish jokes, but in Brazil, they tell jokes about people from Portugal? It's the truth!
Example: Why do Portuguese cars have windshield wipers on the inside? Because they drive their cars like this! (pantomime turning a steering wheel and making engine noises with your mouth, spraying spittle for effect as you do so.)
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Having spent most of my formative years in Georgia, for about thirteen years of my life I had to consciously avoid using the word "y'all." Now one of my friends here in Arizona has consciously adopted it as a more PC means of addressing people. Go figure. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who disagree with me on this, but I think society has applied "you guys" indiscriminately for long enough now to neuter it as a phrase. I have used it myself with exclusively female groups before without it feeling awkward or anything. I absolutely cannot abide by the possessive "you guys's," however. I used to think that that monstrosity was confined to the script of Napoleon Dynamite, but sadly this has proven not to be the case.
I believe "hoo-rah" as a military thing is used more as a general-purpose interjection than in the manner of "hella" (is that what you meant, R2DTrousers? As in "hoo-rah yellin' about the sex?") I'll admit my knowledge of this is limited to my interactions with a Young-Republican-type mug back in high school and a friend of mine who recently dated a Marine. I could be completely mistaken.
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In Buenos Aires, a dialect called Lumfardo is used, with the word vos meaning "you, plural" whereas in Chile they use the standard vosotros for "you, plural." The necessity is mitigated by the required conjugation of verbs into "you, plural" form.
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The thing is, if you say 'you guys' it will get my attention, but if you say 'party people' it will never occur to me that I am being addressed.
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Hell -yes- Chile!
*does a little dance, where the main move is Liking Chile*
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Where I grew up in PA people use "you guys's" as well as "yins" but it's mainly kids and low-class adults that say it.
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I mean, if you genuinely fear that one or two of the dudes and ladies are not party people on any level, we've always got good ol' workin' class "Youse".
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*wanders in and observes quietly, dumb with glee*
Carry on, people.
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I grew up with "y'all" and find it a very useful word when used properly. Y'all is the second person plural pronoun. Nothing says "Yankee" like someone using "y'all" as a singular. Similarly, "Y'all's" is the second person plural possessive.
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I'm a big fan of further conjunction.
such as d'y'all. As in "What will you have to drink, sir?" "Well... d'y'all have sweet tea?"
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Jeff Foxworth said that "y'all" is singular. To be plural you have to say "all y'all."
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To be plural you have to say "all y'all."
I thought that, technically, in the Queen's Redneck it was "alla y'all".
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Saying "yins" is a Hunt's move.
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Jeff Foxworth said that "y'all" is singular. To be plural you have to say "all y'all."
If Jeff Foxworthy said that he is wrong.
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seriously. Do not go to Jeff Foxworthy with your grammar questions.
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The irony of a man claiming to be representative of redneck culture by engaging in wordplay does not escape me.
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I'm a big fan of further conjunction.
such as d'y'all. As in "What will you have to drink, sir?" "Well... d'y'all have sweet tea?"
Agreed!
Also, I suggest a similar wha'd'y'all:
"Are you prepared to order, sir?" "Not yet, wha'd'y'all recommend?"
You have to be careful though, because if you put to many contractions into a single word, the missing letters form a critical mass that collapses in on itself and ensures that no one ever hears a word you say ever again.
Or maybe they just stop listening.
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See, this all started because my friend, who is from Alabama, explained to me just how hard she had to work to not sound Southern. Naturally y'all is one of those things she takes special care not to say. After a night where she'd had more wine than usual, she was suddenly no longer Canadian sounding, which was very cute. Then later we were out at a restaurant she frequents where the server was also from Alabama, and the server giggled to my friend about how northerners say you guys, even with a group of women. Since then I've been terribly self conscious about it all.
If she is trying so damn hard not to say y'all, and I start saying y'all North America will implode.
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To tell the truth, I take y'all like Mitch Hedburg does, as an omission of the "ou" in words. Which my friends do not get when I ask for them to bring over a nice juicy cantel'pe.
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Hmm. With an all-female group, I think "folks" sounds more awkward than "guys."
i prefer: folk'ers
"Hey you Folk'ers, wassup?"
I grew up with "y'all" and find it a very useful word when used properly. Y'all is the second person plural pronoun. Nothing says "Yankee" like someone using "y'all" as a singular. Similarly, "Y'all's" is the second person plural possessive.
i tend to use ya'll singularly, because i can't go to stage two acclimation and say "Bubba" or "Sissy" without crying.
and nothing says "Failed Yankee Transplant" like crying any time you say "bubba" or "sissy".
also, also:
i am on board for making "clutch" a better word, except that it is impossible for it to be better since it is the name of the best band ever since the last best band ever.
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See, this all started because my friend, who is from Alabama, explained to me just how hard she had to work to not sound Southern. Naturally y'all is one of those things she takes special care not to say. After a night where she'd had more wine than usual, she was suddenly no longer Canadian sounding, which was very cute.
Are there other Canadian accents besides Ont, Quebecois, and whatever you call the variety spoken in BC (which didn't sound all that different from West Coast US to me) ?
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Are there other Canadian accents besides Ont, Quebecois, and whatever you call the variety spoken in BC (which didn't sound all that different from West Coast US to me) ?
Newfy, for one... (and most amusingly).
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my friend does a Quebecois accent-- as none of us have ever met a Quebecois, I assume that it is correct.
The way I will test this: When you meet a person from Quebec, do you want to punch them right in their face? Or look in their mouth for whatever it is full of?
If yes, then his accent is really good.
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Actually, according to dialecticians, where I am from - Manitoba - is considered "accent neutral," which is why most companies who want a North American call center have one/and/or their main branch in my area. We sound non-specifically North American here. Back in my call center days, I'd only get caught if I said "about" or "zed." There's loads of Canadian accents though - Quebec (ineve is right btw), Newfie, East Coast, West Coast, Northern, Rural Francophone... there's more, but these are the most distinct.
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I have been accused of saying "about" like a Canadian. Once this is pointed out, though, I start saying it the American way. So I am not sure if that is true.
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I'd only get caught if I said "about" or "zed."
Well, how often do you have to say zed, besides for, "Zed's dead, baby."?
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I am pretty sure if someone mentions "Timbits" then they are Canadian.
Unless their boyfriend is named Tim, I suppose.
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Is it wrong that I want American English to pick up the use of "zed?" I consider it to be a fabulous word.
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I taught in Canada for a year and as I remember it, the students really hated it that I didn't say 'zed' and I taunted them by saying 'zee' at every opportunity.
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I taught in Canada for a year and as I remember it, the students really hated it that I didn't say 'zed' and I taunted them by saying 'zee' at every opportunity.
This is only barely related, but it bugs the crap out of me that the narrator on Mythbusters uses british rules for collective nouns. Every time he says "the build team are" I want to find him and strike him. Especially because I know in England they dub over him with another guy.
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I taught in Canada for a year and as I remember it, the students really hated it that I didn't say 'zed' and I taunted them by saying 'zee' at every opportunity.
I dealt with the reverse for way too long. There would be people who would fly in to a rage if I accidentally said zed instead of zee. And I had to say it constantly because my id code (derived from my last name, and.. random numbers) had a "z" in it. And this was what you had to give people to when they were pissed off at you. It was hilarious to encounter people who were truly unaware of what zed meant. I definitely remember a least a couple party people being all "zed? What's zed? What are you saying? I don't understand you." It was fantastic. I'd also always get the "you don't say zed-bra do you?" question at least once a day. Which, well... fuck you. I'm married to saying "zed" - like I said, I've got one in my last name, so it's something ingrained in me from kindergarten times.
Also, I remember one guy taunting me when I told him I was transferring him to tech support, telling him the wait "is about 3 minutes." He said "What? Say 'about' again. Say it. Say 'about.'" "Like I said sir, the wait is approximately 3 minutes." "No. I want you to say it. Say 'abooout.' Where are you from? You're Canadian aren't you?" I'm pretty sure I just transferred him without a word. This sort of thing happend all the freakin' time.
These are stories from back in dumbrella days - back then I was posting from the pit of hell that was the call center.
(Also, interesting: Spell Check doesn't know what "zee" is, but accepts "zed.")
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(Also, interesting: Spell Check doesn't know what "zee" is, but accepts "zed.")
It knows aitch, and that's what's really important.
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I grew up in the midwest with virtually no accent whatsoever, although according to my in-laws I do say "cyalender" and "cyoopon." Since moving south fourteen years ago - I have finally reached the point where I've spent equal time in the South and the North now -- I've adopted "y'all" as a useful substitute for "you guys" but this changes depending on the situation. I tend to talk like whoever I'm speaking with at the time so I even develop a faint Spanish accent when I spend too much time around my mother-in-law. When I go see my hair stylist I come out sounding like Scarlett O'Hara with a bad case of the "girl-friend"s.
Every time I visit family in Ohio it takes me about a week to switch back to "soda" from "pop."
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Does anyone else in the world say soda as so-der like I do? I mean, wash as warsh and tater for potato I can figger, er, figure. But who the holy-molys says soder and how did it infect me?
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jl-- do people really say Pop there? i feel like people in Charlotte say Soda. But I suppose it -is- a bastion of Carpetbaggers.
Also: the way my friend Alison says "bag" and "flag" and such endlessly entertains me.
"So, Dan, I was listening to Black Flayg the other day..."
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I can attest that it is indeed called "pop" in Ohio.
Here in Georgia, regardless of the brand or flavoring, it's all called "Coke."
"Hey, you want a Coke?"
"Sure."
"What kind?"
"..."
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In Delaware, about half the state says wu-der instead of waw-ter and it drives me nuuuuuuuuts. Does this occur anywhere else at all.
I think zed is sweet. I would like to use it frequently, but there are not many places I can use it.
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In what people from Manhattan call "Upstate New York" and what real human beings call "Central New York" the soda/pop divide is pretty interesting.
From just east of Syracuse and on east to Albany and New England, we uniformly call it "soda".
From Rochester west to Buffalo and the Canadian border, it is called "pop" by all.
And from east of Rochester to Syracuse, there is shaded overlap.
My theory is that it is proliferated by the Buffalo-based Wegmans grocery store chain calling its generic soda brands "pop" and advertising sodas as "pop" and... the easternmost Wegmans grocery store being in Syracuse.
I'm sure that, you know, in general "pop" is Midwestern and "soda" is Northeastern/Middle-Atlantic and the linguistic border would fall somewhere between the Buffalo metro area and the Albany metro area but...
It appears that the difference that finally sifted out was whether you lived in Price Chopper (and formerly Big M or P&C) grocery territory which used the Albany-based nomenclature or Wegman's grocery territory which used Buffalo-based nomenclature.
When it sifted out that Wegmans only penetrated as far east as Syracuse and, indeed, Price Chopper did not penetrate much further than Syracuse's western suburbs... so sifted out what people call their fizzy drinks.
That's why, being from the eastern suburbs of Utica, I use the correct word "soda".
As the power of the region chains and, indeed, regional media fade, future generations will probably be less influenced by this divide but... the difference was uniform as my parents grew up in the 60s and still prominent as I grew up in the 80s...
So my using "soda" is still an artifact of regional chains and their media influence as opposed to growing national retail and media forces which... seem to be pushing for "soda" anyway.
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I actually prefer the term "soft drink" - as, to me, "drink" is reserved for beverages containing alcohol.
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I can attest that it is indeed called "pop" in Ohio.
Here in Georgia, regardless of the brand or flavoring, it's all called "Coke."
"Hey, you want a Coke?"
"Sure."
"What kind?"
"..."
It was also this way where I grew up in Western Kentucky.
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I actually prefer the term "soft drink" - as, to me, "drink" is reserved for beverages containing alcohol.
Conversational exchange:
Curmudgeon: "...get me something to drink."
Neophyte: "OK, I'll draw up some fresh water from the well."
Curmudgeon: "I said something to drink! Not something to bathe in!"
From a graphic novel that floats somewhere in my memory. Perhaps based even on actual printed-word novels.
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I can attest that it is indeed called "pop" in Ohio.
Here in Georgia, regardless of the brand or flavoring, it's all called "Coke."
"Hey, you want a Coke?"
"Sure."
"What kind?"
"..."
When I was a kid I would always go to restaurants and order a coke. After I got coke I was hugely disapointed, I think I wanted Dr. Pepper.
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Does anyone else in the world say soda as so-der like I do? I mean, wash as warsh and tater for potato I can figger, er, figure. But who the holy-molys says soder and how did it infect me?
Sometimes I say "sodey," but only when I'm being flip.
Like when I call my dad "pops."
Sometimes I forget that the fifties are over.
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JL!
Good lord!
Ok, I am going to take a map of NC and mark it out. I just talked to the girl who lives across the hall, who is from Winston-Salem.
the map will be divided, and will somehow delineate:
Charlotte-- Soda
Raleigh-- Pop
Winston-Salem-- Coke.
WTF?
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A soda has ice cream in it. Duh
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JL!
Good lord!
Ok, I am going to take a map of NC and mark it out. I just talked to the girl who lives across the hall, who is from Winston-Salem.
the map will be divided, and will somehow delineate:
Charlotte-- Soda
Raleigh-- Pop
Winston-Salem-- Coke.
WTF?
No, no no....Raleigh is Soda. Sometimes Coke, but you hear that more Down East.
Ohio is Pop. I lived there 'til I was 14, and I sometimes regress if I've been visiting the Yank side of the family. You'll occasionally encounter someone who says "pop" here, but that's a dead giveaway that the speaker is a transplant.
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oh.
huh.
I misremembered what you had said. Weirddd.
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Cort, if it's got ice cream in it, it's called a float.
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They call it "pop" in Chicago, unfortunately.
Also, everyone in Philly that I knew said "wooder" for "water."
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Cort, if it's got ice cream in it, it's called a float.
That's only for root beer. Otherwise you have a cherry soda or whatever.
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Where I was from, anything with ice cream in it became a "that soda" float.
At the ice cream stands where I grew up, Coke floats were more commonly ordered than root beer floats.
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Where I was from, anything with ice cream in it became a "that soda" float.
At the ice cream stands where I grew up, Coke floats were more commonly ordered than root beer floats.
qfmft
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Okay, someone around here is in Charlotte, and I can't parse who it is. Whoever it is, PM me. I moved here in September, and need all the advice I can get on where to buy a house.
I was born and raised in eastern Virginia, and it's definitely "soda" there. My wife is from Lynchburg, but trained herself to say "pop" because she associated "soda" with Southernness, and wanted to be considered a Northerner. Her parents were from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, and her extended family is mostly there, but she has never lived there.
As for phrases that are common in one's everyday speech, my best one is "I can't even spell _______" as as indicator of how unknowledgeable I am on a given subject. "You want me to help you work on your transmission? Dude, I can't even SPELL 'transmission.'"
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*dies of pleasure*
Keep it going, folks. ;)
Incidentally, PBS has a whole series on American English speech called "Do You Speak American?" (http://www.pbs.org/speak/) that covers a lot of this stuff.
For me personally, this thread is a wonderful wealth of sexy data. Please, continue your discussion.
*looks about with wild desire*
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As are most Atlantans, I am a transplant - the worst kind, a Yankee. I now have a hard time visiting due to my secret problem.
I, after more than twelve years in the south, use the word "fixin'" in all the wrong ways. And I love it. I'm always fixin' to do something. Or fixin' dinner. Or just fixin.'
I would be shunned were this ever to come out. I beg of you your confidence.
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I have the inverse problem with zed, becuase zed is the convention here but because of too much american tv I sometimes slip in a zee by mistake and everyone just stares at me like I have a low understanding of the language.
Also that 'Zedbra' thing makes no goddamn sense at all. It's not called a See-arrot either assholes. If that's how pronunciation worked we wouldn't need the 'e' in zebra at all and I still wouldn't be able to pronounce it because I say z-eh-bra. Don't take no flak from people who don't know how language works.
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Don't take no flak from people who don't know how language works.
QFMFT
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QFMFT
I am left with an interesting paradox.
If I did not have the internet, I would not have seen that acronym and had to scratch my head and wonder "Am I a complete moron for not knowing what this means?" and I would not have felt unhip and dumb for a moment or two.
However.
The internet also allowed me to highlight the text and, in four or five clicks, know the answer to this smarty-##### riddle.
So... did this work out essentially flat? Nothing lost, nothing gained?
Or have I learned an important lesson about how the internet is slowly killing the idea of niche knowledge?
I dunno.
All I do know is that if I had seen that on a blackboard in high school, I would've scrawled beneath it:
"Eschew obfuscation".
Because we are all nerds, we would've all been with or without the internet.
But perhaps our nerd-specialities would have remained separate strains instead of equal parts of a vastly-wider and yet somehow-shallower internet dorkness.
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Aha.
But without the internet, it can be argued that that acronym never would have come into being. Instead, I would have affirmed my agreement with a full utterance: "Right on, bro!" or something like that.
Still, looking at your larger question, I disagree that the internet is spelling the end of "niche knowledge" (one could argue it can't spell at all, given the lack of vowels in things like 'QFMFT' et al :P). While the internet is becoming a repository for all knowledge that we've amassed so far as humans, and especially all buffoonery disguised as knowledge that we in our hubris like to pass off as sagesse, one still has to have at least a small awareness of a knowledge in order to find it on the internet. In other words, one has to at least have a term to enter into a search field.
In many cases, however, I would welcome a bit of "un-niche-ifying," given that one of my passions is linguistics, which seems to baffle everyone. I was cursed with a social nature coupled with a passion for an absolutely specialized passion. Trust me, trying to find people who are excited enough to bother looking up valence change and Oroko verb morphology in the Mbonge dialect, not to mention people who want to bother talking about it, is a difficult and lonely thing.
Yeah, specialized knowledge is alive and well. But what I see happening is that those who traffic in it are better able to find one another, and potentially bring others into their fold.
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without the internet, I would lead an aggravated life.
Because... I constantly have conversations where I end up wondering something... and I don't find the answer until I go home and look it up.
Did you know that the reason popcorn forms such cool shapes... is that the combination of heat and pressure inside the kernel is so great that the starch liquefies?
Did you know that no one is really sure why people cry when they're sad? Or why they laugh when tickled?
Did you know (I did, but I had to prove it to some one) that Romany are not the same as Romanian?
Do you know why hair grows to a certain length, and then stops? The hair grows for a certain period of time, then stops for a certain period of time, and then the old hair falls out and is replaced. I had wondered this since I was probably 12 years old, and only found out the answer this year.
I still can't figure out where/when the concept of shaving legs started. I get the impression that it goes pretty far back.
We had this conversation because we were watching a period film, and there was a nude scene, and the lady had smooth legs. We argued about whether this was realistic.
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Very good points, Muse.
I guess I've just...
My dad raised my brother and I to be people who could find rare things and valuable things by going into places where they are careless or ignorant about the value of what they possess... by knowing what to look for and by being systematically-dogged.
The cut-out bins at music stores, dusty boxes at garage sales, small stores in the boonies of the Adirondacks, weird off-campus bookstores and flea markets, y'know?
And now... all those things that were such hard earned victories of scrounging and researching from ten scant years ago... you can find damn near anything you want on eBay or Amazon or whatever with five clicks, if you know what you're looking for and don't mind deeply overpaying for it.
A part of me misses that. "The Adventures of Mark Twain" in the backbin of a mom-and-pop video store in Dolgeville. The one shortpacked female figure in that wave of Marvel toys by hitting every single store that could possibly sell a toy in Albany.
And while the benefits outweigh the loss on the balance, in certain instances, I mourn the days before you could find anything in five minutes as long as you were prepared to waste a lot of money in the process.
ALSO: Dear madam, you have clearly outclassed me as a linguist. All I understood in there was that you were in some way referencing the comic relief wizard in "Masters of the Universe". I salute you.
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a-so: I miss that, too. And I never really experienced it.
I feel like I get a little of it from the record store in Charlotte that I go to. that guy could probably be making a lot more money by selling his stuff on eBay.
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There's a way of speaking that seems to be characteristic of people around here (who aren't recent transplants) where they preface a quotation with "I'm all:" or "She's all:". Its sort of used in the same way that "like" can be, as in: "I'm like: don't say that to her; then she's like: I'll say what I want to who I want."[sic - few people I know would actually say whomever]. The "I'm all/she's all" construction would drop right into that example.
It might even tie into the way Roast Beef speaks, "Eardrums all exploding like popcorn". I'm not sure why I feel that way - there just seems to be some consonance.
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I'd like to confirm that Roast Beef speaks with diction very strongly of the Mid-Peninsula, San Francisco Bay. However it is most usually heard on buses at a very high volume by large women speaking on cellular phones.
All conferring with friends about what they're doing
All shocked and surprised by what he-said-she-said
All giving me hell of dirty looks when I ask them to please be quiet so I can nurse my hangover quietly.
Also: Roast Beef enunciates to a degree which is comical for someone used to hearing above diction slurred beyond recognition and punctuated by high pitched obnoxious braying laughter which grates at the very soul.
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I still can't figure out where/when the concept of shaving legs started. I get the impression that it goes pretty far back.
We had this conversation because we were watching a period film, and there was a nude scene, and the lady had smooth legs. We argued about whether this was realistic.
I used to have a picture of a lady in a bathing suit from the 40s to prove that women used to be allowed to have hair on their legs. This is probably one of the few things left that you should ask your grandma instead of searching on the internet.
Also note: Movies get most details of history wrong. Don't get me started on whether there were any pug dogs in America at the time of Pochahontas. Also, I love this site. (http://www.ms-studio.com/typecasting.html) And seriously, do you think they'd have a hairy naked lady in a movie just for accuracy's sake when they know most people would be grossed out? If so I think you have a misconception about the role of naked ladies in movies.
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well, the argument centered around the fact that greek men shaved off their body hair. So maybe their women did, as well.
Also: wasn't that Pug the Pet of the fat+armored bad guy? Who was British?
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I never saw the movie, but it is generally reported that pugs did not arrive in England until 1688, which was long after the death of Pocahontas, so no contemporaneous Brit could have owned one. And if he had it would have looked very little like the breed as it is known now and drawn in the cartoon.
I believe we now have a contender for Most Wandering Thread of All Time.
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Y'know, pugs are pretty clutch little dogs, though.
There, back on track.
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Will they fit in a clutch though?
Edit: Ooh! Ooh! Even better:
(http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:VSQtUzXQU04dyM:http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/boneappetitbakery_1904_16719686)
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I totally forgot about this (http://popvssoda.com:2998/) (to go back to pop vs soda). I found it a couple of years ago or so, but it showed up on MeFi just earlier.
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SO many cans, Sub and Jay. Very nice.
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Yeah, but if a pug drove a car with a clutch, would it use the parking brake?
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Yeah, but if a pug drove a car with a clutch, would it use the parking brake?
I fear that the result would be much like this. (http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09062006) Only with more twisted metal and a family changed forever
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This survey + map (http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html) is basically the best thing ever.
Why, we haven't touched on some of the things it adresses, such as sandwich names (http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_64.html) or athletic footwear (http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_105.html).
Incidentally, carbonated beverage map (http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_105.html).
I really want to get the raw data for this and turn it into a Google Earth plugin. And by "really want to," I mean "really wish someone else would." I'm kind of lazy like that.
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This survey + map (http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html) is basically the best thing ever.
Agreed. I think I've responded to the survey at least thrice.
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I have just re-skimmed this thread and...
There are places where "clutch" is slang for pu$$y? Really? Really really?
Every colloquialism regarding standard transmission is now suddenly in a new light for me.
"Grind the clutch." "Pop the clutch." "Watch out there or you'll burn out the clutch."
...neat.
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I have just re-skimmed this thread and...
There are places where "clutch" is slang for pu$$y? Really? Really really?
Every colloquialism regarding standard transmission is now suddenly in a new light for me.
"Grind the clutch." "Pop the clutch." "Watch out there or you'll burn out the clutch."
...neat.
Can'd. Just for being you.