The questioner may have avoided "guinea" or "dago" and chosen "wop" out of political correctness.
I had, and continue to have, no idea how to react to the question.
So the guy is still waiting for a response. That's not very hot-headed southern European of you.
You should send the gentleman an email in which you explain that while you may not be a wop yourself, you are certainly a wop-ally.
Anyway, Wikipedia says the "without papers" etymology is bogus. Granted, that's pretty rich coming from Wikipedia.
I'm not sure why 3 and 5 are assuming the "older person" in question is male.
6: I actually hadn't heard the "without papers" thing until I relayed the OP tale to an Italian-American friend of mine. I thought it sounded a bit urband-legendy, but I don't know.
I'm not sure why 3 and 5 are assuming the "older person" in question is male.
Latent sexism, probably.
8: It was a male, but I didn't intentionally exclude that fact from the post. Huh.
8: It's called an automatic unexamined assumption about gender. You can just call it out without being unsure. Also, the only people I've ever met who've used the word "wog" have been older and male.
I'd like to know what the "kindly intentions" might have been. Concern for your welfare?
I'd like to know what the "kindly intentions" might have been. Concern for your welfare?
Probably had some papers to give him, if he needed some.
Did the guy own a stationery store or something?
Were you bringing a knife to a gunfight?
I'm going to let rampant speculation take the place of too many context clues (for clinging-to-loose-pseudonymity's sake). But I will tell you this: he was Canadian, as I found out.
Stanley! You have to provide some context here!
Not that it's not entertaining as hell to envision the gentleman next to you in line somewhere coming out with "Are you a wop?" (Are you from Mars?)
Canadians are weird, you know. Someone in B.C. a few years ago thought probably Baltimore was near Chicago, right? It was charming as hell.
Baltimore is practically on top of Chicago, galaxy-wise. Probably it was a space alien.
It was. That's how they are over there.
Wow, what a freak. Quick, Parsi, is Penticton closer to Kamloops or Revelstoke?
Let's agree that we're all closed-minded and provincial and bicker about something more interesting.
Because those are totes comparably major cities.
25: Shh. I know. I didn't feel remotely inclined to laugh at the person; I just said, no, it's not really that close, but same side of the country, yes.
And the person's name was Andromeda.
26: What happened to your posting frenzy? I was enjoying it. Go nuts.
(Uh, if 30 came off sounding bitter, it's only because I often feel personal-anecdote posts like this are kind of lame. I will direct future bitterness towards my insides.)
I find it unfortunate that "wog" is a slur. That word has such a great sound; too bad our culture couldn't find a better use for it.
I'll whip something up.
Quick, Parsi, is Penticton closer to Kamloops or Revelstoke?
The correct answer to this and all non-US geography questions is "who gives a shit?"
28 You're a better person than me. I was inclined to mock everyone who asked me If I speak Swedish or variants on that, starting with Reed College which sent me a brochure addressed to 'Geneva, Sweden.'
Where do you think I learned 34?
@22
Not limited to Canadians. Friends from the East Coast have said "I'm coming to San Francisco soon; that's close to Seattle, right?" Yes, like Baltimore is close to Chicago.
@25
Penticton, Revelstoke and Kamloops are all within 100 miles of each other. Order of magnitude fail. Ironic, since BC is nearly 1000 miles long.
starting with Reed College which sent me a brochure addressed to 'Geneva, Sweden.'
Amazing.
Baltimore is pretty close to Chicago. Alphabetically, at least.
37 -- I just picked towns randomly from Google maps. You think I give a damn about that boring wasteland to the North?
I had, and continue to have, no idea how to react to the question.
This has never happened to me, but I think you're supposed to pull a gun on the gentleman and say "I'm better than you, you stinking Irish pig."
(Or you could say "No, I'm a Jew. People always mistake me for a wop.")
You picked some beautiful places. I'd probably rather be there than Baltimore (but not Chicago).
35: starting with Reed College which sent me a brochure
I got a brochure from Smith College, despite the fact that I'm a maaannn, laydeez.
And I was accepted to Reed, but was too poor to attend.
Also, what's the world coming to when Menard's can advertise a sale on a brand of household lubricant called "Jig-A-Loo" without a hint of irony?
My Uncle Silvio told us "I'm a wop. You know what that means? It's Italian for good-looking guy."
True story. Only Uncle Silvio is actually my great uncle, or would be, if we were actually related to my fake cousins. Everyone has fake cousins, right?
From my huge sample, 60 year old Canadians are quite racist. My aunt and her friends were complaining about the immigrants - of course, they're all British, but these new immigrants are *brown*!
"The name Jig-A-Loo comes from a familiar French Canadian expression, "Ti-gi-do!", which means "I've got it!". This is what yelled the Quebec inventor who had long been working on finding just the right formula for an all-around lubricant."
Wikipedia knows all. Whatever. I'm going to look for it, it seems like it might be better than WD-40 for many uses;.
I hate you, Stanley.
I hate your smarmy, good-looking face and your easy manner. I'll bet you're easy in a ski-lodge, and easy on a yacht, and easy on a beach. And I knew you'd wear a gold charm around your neck, and I bet your chest is hairy, and in summer matted with sun oil. Above all, I hate you because you're a culling blue-eyed wop!
My Uncle Silvio told us "I'm a wop. You know what that means? It's Italian for good-looking guy."
Was teo subtly proposing an alternate etymology in the first comment, based on the similarity of Italian and Spanish?
49: And a a jumped-up pantry boy who doesn't know his place. Not to put too fine a point on it.
I think "tigidou" means "OK" or "fine." But how you get from "tigidou" to "Jig-a-Loo," I know not.
52: Huh. Someone says it's related to the English expression "tickety-boo."
I don't think I'm a saint, but now and then I am a little shocked at the persistence of racial and ethnic slurs in cultural memory, much less quotidian discourse.
54: I took a bunch of hahaha! just joshing with ya! repetitive wop-n-pizza-making-and-I-bet-your-parents'-living-room-is-really-tacky! jokes from a friend's super Boston Irish parents. I was sort of dumbstruck by it, since I'd never been subject to or even witnessed such a thing in my life. So weird. (Although the Irish side of my family used to call me the "skinny guinea" when I was little.)
55: Did they mention the statue of the Virgin in the half-buried bathtub in your front yard?
I've gotten the 'Oh you're Polish, have you heard about the Polack who...' many times.
repetitive wop-n-pizza-making-and-I-bet-your-parents'-living-room-is-really-tacky! jokes from a friend's super Boston Irish parents
Ha ha, how many of your relatives are in AA?
re: 57
You'd be surprised how often people try to essay a groundskeeper-wullie-style fake Scottish accent, to your face ...
I got a stereotype I'd never heard before last night. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home.
Bagger: Is that your real hair color?
Apo: Yeah, it is.
B: Got some Irish in you?
A: Yeah.
B: Pretty much all the Irish people I know are really good artists.
A: Huh. I didn't get that one. Just the hair.
I recently learned the phrase 'Irish Alzheimers' -- you forget everyone but your enemies.
50 - Yes. And then he made it explicit.
"Irish twins" was unknown to me until college, sepite growing up (somewhat) Irish Catholic.
"Irish twins" and "Vatican twins" are slang terms for siblings who are not actually twins, but rather, were born fewer than 12 months apart [2]--possibly in the same calendar year and/or school year.Huh. I did not know that. Thanks, Wikipedia!
I've never heard "wop" except on the TV or ironically. I have heard "paisano" (pronounced without the final syllable) used by those of Italian ancestry.
67: Both were fairly common in the Fifties on Long Island. Haven't heard either much since.
67: Both were fairly common in the Fifties on Long Island. Haven't heard either much since.
65, 66: did not recall learning that phrase until after we had a kid.
68: I've never been to the 1950s or to Long Island (unless you count landing at JFK).
I've only ever heard "paisano" used by members of the groups being referred to, and only ever in a neutral or friendly way. Is it considered a slur?
Is that your real hair color?
People who ask this befuddle me. The eyebrows (and even more, eyelashes) are almost always a good tell for hair color; if you're that curious, just look.
72.1: Nah. It just means "countryman."
Maybe they don't want to be noticed gazing intently into the other party's eye-regions.
72.2: Of course some are known to dye their eyebrows and/or eyelashes. Probably not Apo, though.
Questions like that are just an expression of irrepressible curiosity. I tend to take it as charming (I tend to get: "Is your hair really like that (i.e. moderately curly)?" I don't know why it seems so odd to people, except that I must not look like a curly-haired type otherwise.)
Don't know if I've already spoken of it here, but not long ago in a conversation with my dad I mentioned that the weirdest pass I'd ever gotten was at a party in Warsaw where a woman said 'Oh, you're Jewish? I've never slept with a Jew before' (After the standard when did you're parents emigrate ask and answer). He said that there is, or at least used to be a stereotype in Poland that Jews have big penises and are good in bed. He added that it got him laid a bunch of times way back in his bachelor days. I'd known of the one about Jewish women being oversexed that was prevalent in prewar Poland, but not the one about Jewish men. Maybe it explains why in his antisemitic stuff Celine keeps on going on about how Jews seduce gentile women and make them not want gentile men, while also turning good Christian boys into gays that want to be fucked up the ass.
I have heard the one about Jewish men being good, by which I mean attentive, lovers.
78: Hence the popular refrain:
Does your nosf hang low?
Does it wobble to and fro?
Can you tie it in a knot?
Can you tie it in a bow?
73: Yes, I should have been clearer that I was making a contrast. I haven't heard the insults, only the more positive slang that would only be used by someone Italian themselves.
From Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker (pg. 195*).
AMERICAN JEWISH men are among my favorite and most frequent customers. They are also, sadly, among my biggest freaks and weirdos.
...
As lovers the American Jewish men are very capable and considerate, but very uptight about eating pussy. This just doesn't happen naturally, but once you teach them, they are not bad at it. They are well-behaved in my living room, and even though they drink very little, they usually tip the bartender, and often also the maid and the doorman.
She gives her opinion on various other nationalities and ethnicities.
Does she suggest how to decide the fate of archeological artifacts when two or more of these ethnicities are in conflict?
I don't see, what would it be, Semites? Unless they insist upon the matter. It's just a rumor: what I heard* was that their parents teach them that a woman's pleasure is just as important as a man's. This seems a good thing to teach.
* This was coming from an older woman friend of mine (I was in my 20s at the time, she 40-ish) who had second-married a Jewish man, and she had things to report.
I don't see, what would it be, Semites? Unless they insist upon the matter.
What, they don't ask first?
I'm not following that, neb. I meant that I don't usually register whether someone's Jewish unless they keep telling me they are. That's all, no big deal.
neb was playing on "seeing someone" -> "dating someone", knowing perfectly well you were referring to the "don't see race" template.
At least, that's what it said on Standpipe's blog.
If you just come out and tell her like that she'll never learn, Ham-Love.
87: On the contrary. It's the only way I'll learn.
Apparently I'm sensitive about this noticing the Jewishness of people. Someone I was dating got really mad at me once because I hadn't realized it. I didn't know what to say other than to apologize?
I have heard the one about Jewish men being good, by which I mean attentive, lovers.
At last, an explanation for my frequently being identified as Jewish.
Are you also well-behaved in living rooms?
I'm sensitive about this noticing the Jewishness of people
Stupid Gentiles with their confusing me-too circumcisions.
I know a two white gentile couples with boys named Isaac. Which will probably makes things more muddled. I think the idea is to get things so confused that they'll have to let every man know where the clitoris is.
At last, an explanation for my frequently being identified as Jewish.
That and your traditional Jewish first name.
I think the real question, Stanley, is whether you're swopl.