Hmm, that doesn't strike me as odd because I have a good friend who frequently uses the construction "coded [X]".
It is interesting, however that if I good "coded working class" (in quotes) most of the results are about methodology of statistical studies. Given that I see "code switching" used to refer to people moving between different class/cultural boundaries relatively frequently I'm surprised that "coded" doesn't appear to be a mainstream usage.
I don't think it's odd, I think it's a way to sound as though you're being nonjudgemental even though you're dying to call them [X].
Knowing that I made heebie chuckle all weekend totally makes my day.
(I am off to have my wisdom teeth removed!)
(Not that Parenthetical was being disingenuous. There is a real statement there about how people present themselves.)
"Coded" is definitely UMC effete liberal bicoastal elitist. It's straight out of upper division lit courses where they teach women to be castrating lesbians and men to fear their own cocks.
Real Americans don't see coded, they see things as they are.
"Coded" is definitely UMC effete liberal bicoastal elitist
Can I use it if I'm just coded UMC?
2: That's not exactly wrong, but it's sort of missing the point. It's hard to talk in colloquial English about class, or about any kind of socioeconomic grouping, without sounding as if you're doing it to express your own snobbery. And that's what I understand you to be saying about the 'coded as [X]' construction -- that it's figleaved snobbery.
But there are reasons other than snobbery to talk about class; talking about conflicts of interest between classes, talking about class solidarity, that sort of thing. So the formal tone of 'coded as [X]' seems useful to me for the purpose of talking about class in a way that really is different from saying 'God, their clothes were just so tacky."
2: Oh, yeah. Hmm. I don't really think that's the case for me (can one excuse themselves from being classist?) - I chose coded because I was thinking about it and realizing that probably a number of those people were probably not actually as poor as they seemed to be; when you're doing stream clean up you're not exactly dressing to impress. Also, through my relatives I've noticed that there's a whole other way of signaling class, etc. in the Midwest that doesn't always translate to California.
where they teach women to be castrating lesbians and men to fear their own cocks.
Now if the men were taught to fear their own balls, rather than their own cocks, this could work out rather well. ("Here, let me take care of those for you.")
Oh, I know, you humorless effete liberals. It's still funny.
UMC effete liberal bicoastal elitist.
The best part about this whole discussion to me is that my father would fit in perfectly with the group I'm referring to as poor. But I suppose I've grown into my liberal bicoastal elitism as an adult.
I think it's a way to sound as though you're being nonjudgemental even though you're dying to call them [X].
This also generated a feeling of assumption clash for me because the friend that I am thinking of frequently uses that construction to refer to their own experience -- e.g., "I suspect my experience of [Y] is strongly coded working class."
LB gets it exactly right in 7.
Certainly, and that sort of language absolutely can be used snobbishly.
6: Are you afraid of your cock?
My default interpretation of "coded" is cardiac or pulmonary arrest: "He coded twice in the ambulance before they got him to the emergency room."
11: Me too, both the Dad bit and the LBE bit.
So, what's the right derogatory, un-PC term for the class status of the teabaggers? "White trash" isn't quite right. Is there an appropriately mean term for "boringly dressed lower middle class white people"?
20: I believe the term you're searching for is "teabagger".
The best part about this whole discussion to me is that my father would fit in perfectly with the group I'm referring to as poor. But I suppose I've grown into my liberal bicoastal elitism as an adult.
Has your father ever heard the word "coded" used in this way?
I only ever have in my sociolinguistics class.
Q: How do you know if a clown has a degree in computer science?
A: S/he codes funny.
22: Yes. My father is self-educated but he's done a very thorough job of it.
Be careful, though: If you code too funny, your source won't compile.
20: Weren't they once called "the silent majority"?
Is there an appropriately mean term for "boringly dressed lower middle class white people"?
"Look how teabaggy those pants are on him!"
I think "peasants" should see a resurgence.
Being coated in codeine would be funny.
I think "the noisy minority" would be a good description.
I thought of the statistical meaning. I'm picturing a Scantron sheet with little bubbles for "poor" and "working class".
Not least because it goes well with cursing. "Bunch of fucking peasants" just rolls off the tongue.
Anyway, this all came about because I was impressed with the diversity of people involved in an activity that I had wrongly thought to be the domain of liberal coastal elites - environmental activism. (I don't know why I always do that; obviously in my area the hunters have been strong advocates of wetlands restoration.) So maybe this is a form of reverse snobbery?
20: You'd probably want to go for a brand identity. Reference K-Mart, or Wal-Mart, or something of the sort.
(As a neat bit of insight into my neuroses, the fact that we're talking about snobbery kept me from actually making an un-PC joke, rather than lamely referring to one, in this comment.)
(I'm not actually sure that as insights go, that qualifies as "neat".)
30: Dad's still pretty quick on the draw, despite how boringly he dresses.
A: The peasants are revolting!
B: You can say that again!
So we're agreed that Parenthetical is an unfeeling monster, right? Good.
Next topic: Is "teabagger" the Platonic ideal of put-down, one that can never be improved-upon? I say yes.
I think "peasants" should see a resurgence.
Story!
Some decades ago, my grandparents went to dinner at the house of one of my grandfather's colleagues from the P/ittsb/rgh Orch/stra. The colleague's wife, a French woman, made some lovely meal featuring an assortment of mushrooms.
"Where did you find such nice wild mushrooms?" asked my grandmother.
"Oh," Colette shrugged gallically, "zee peasants picked dem."
Q: What's a teabagger's favorite food?
A: Teaburgers!
Q: What do you call a Log Cabin Republican who joins the Tea Party Movement?
A: Teabugger!
Q: What's a hippie teabagger's favorite salad?
A: Teabulgar!
Q: (left as an exercise for the reader)
A: Teablogger!
Speaking of environmental activism, I was expecting more outrage at the two-minute virulently anti-environmentalist commercial during the Super Bowl. The fact that it turned into an ad for Audi's "clean diesel" car at the very end made it simply baffling.
43: A girl I knew was from one of those enclaves of Eastern Europe where traces of the sort of culture depicted in The Merry Widow survived even the crushing boot of godless Communism. When a story about Pat Buchanan's supporters on CNN years ago asked, rhetorically, "Who are these voters?", she said, with precisely the tone that one would expect, "[t]hey are peasants."
Q: What do you call a teabagger at the Watergate hotel?
A: Teaburglar!
Q: What do you call a teabagger who's good at word games?
A: Teaboggler!
Q: What do you call a teabagger soliciting donations?
A: Teabeggar!
Q: What's up a teabagger's nose?
A: Teaboogers!
Well, I've nothing against these people going around calling themselves teabaggers, you understand, but when I was young it was a perfectly respectable word meaning dunking your balls in somebody's mouth, and I think it's a shame to lose that meaning because there isn't really another word with the same meaning, but I suppose we've got to move with the times...
Q: What do you call a teabagger who ships cargo downriver in flat boats?
A: Teabarger!
"Look how teabaggy those pants are on him!"
"Pull those teabaggy-ass pants up, son. You look like a lug."
51: The etymology there has always been a bit puzzling to me -- it seems to imply that there are people out there sucking on teabags. Which seems like a screwy way to get a caffeine hit, unless there's no water to be had at all.
I'm surprised that the lower middle class style of dress under discussion is being described as "boring". Surely the wealthy dress boring, too? Is a business suit "exciting"?
TEABAGGINSES! I HATES THEM!
55: Yes, it was common practice in desert caravans.
I think J.C. Penny is the most properly mocked cheapish brand, and perhaps most evocative of the Teabaggers' style. Walmart has genuinely good deals/evokes frugality and picking on Kmart is just too mean. The "JC Penny riots"?
Note: I don't think I've seen a J.C. Penny in about 20 years.
58: At least those stocked by Lipton.
Everyone dresses boring. We just watched Slap Shot, made in 1997, when clothes had colors and shapes and looked like something. Also, I don't understand why no one has put a montage of the Hanson brothers in the movie beating people up to the song Mmm-bop, by a different set of Hanson brothers. Is this not the most obvious mash-up ever? And also something that the world needs?
Is a business suit "exciting"?
It is if you do it right.
Q: Whats hanging from Glen Becks's nose?
A: Teabooger!
Oooooo, pinstripes. Mmmmmmm.
I already use "peasant" as an insult. Also "philistine," "bashi-bazouk," "anthropophage," and "bilious blistering barnacles."
I am a fan of Captain Haddock. I've found his profanities quite helpful in keeping things in perspective when I get ticked. I've added some of my own, of which "wombat dingleberry" is my current favorite.
Q: What to you call a teabagger who labels insects of the order Hymenoptera?
A: Bee tagger!
59: Um, I really don't think being a stuck-up jackass about fashion is the way to go in critiquing the teabaggers.
I think J.C. Penny is the most properly mocked cheapish brand
Montgomery Ward! Also, "Montgomery" is fun to say: "Wow, look at all those marauding montgomeries! Run, run for your lives!"
So we're agreed that Parenthetical is an unfeeling monster, right? Good.
Take that back!
Ok, now I'm off for my punishment, for real. Woo, oral surgery!
Montgomery Ward!
Does anyone else call it "Monkey Ward's", or is that just my weirdo parents?
72: There's also the venerable "Monkey Ward" joke.
I prefer to see 76 as an answer to, and in no way pwnd by, 75.
59: Um, I really don't think being a stuck-up jackass about fashion is the way to go in critiquing the teabaggers.
Does it help to spell the name of the store wrong, and making a point of saying "I don't think I've seen a J.C. Penny in about 20 years." when they have 1,106 locations in the USA? (according to Wikipedia)
"Wow, look at all those marauding montgomeries!"
But we all know who's really pulling the strings.
79 -- I prefer to do most of my political consulting work at Standpipe's blog.
I'm with KR. JC Penney makes okay stuff, about a million times better than what you can get at Walmart.
74, 83: I'm appalled. I had no idea that there were people here that shopped at JC Penney.
It's sad enough that many of you buy your clothes off the rack.
Q: What do you call a boastful teabagger?
A: Teabragger!
#75. I think everyone called it "Monkey Ward's." I think I knew the store as "Monkey Ward's" before I ever knew the real name.
(Best discount store name ever is still "Two Guys.")
Of course, there was recently this much-loathed article about JCP entering midtown Manhattan. Like, OMG some of the clothes are cut for sizes over 10 and it is soooo gross.
Yeah, why you pick on J.C. Penny? When I'm not ordering my cloths from Overstock.com, that's a perfectly serviceable place to go.
84: GREAT, START 'EM YOUNG.
89: The reaction to that article was (i) amusing and (ii) evidence that such portions of the Internet as are not devoted to pr0n or sharing MP3s have been wholly subsumed into the umbrage economy. Every American, every day, an election-year Miss Grundy!
5: UMC effete liberal bicoastal elitist
Why are you racist against Methodists?
OK, people. Listen here, real careful like. It's spelled "J. C. Penney". OK?
94: The dress so boringly.
Nice potlucks though.
93: Indeed, the upcoming transition of nytimes.com to metered access could put a real damper on one of the main leisure activities of a certain group of internet users. I mean, I enjoy gawking at the Critical Shopper's use of "waddle" to describe JCP's method of entry into the Manhattan as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure I'd pay $0.50 to do so.
...but I'm not sure I'd pay $0.50 to do so.
"That must mean he wants to negotiate!" thought Giant Boy Newspaper Publisher Pinch Sulzberger.
Wow. That Penneys Invades Manhattan article codes as assholetastic.
102: But the author said she was joking! Surely that makes it all okay.
Why is Joy Behar putting Pam Geller on her show? Can't her producers find a crackhead who would be just as entertaining and twice as intelligible? If Pam Geller isn't too crazy for cable, then who's next? Lyndon LaRouche? Alex Jones? Time Cube guy?
Why are you watching cable news when there's neither an election nor a natural disaster nor a terrorist attack going on?
I'm assuming that the Penney's article was a deliberate provocation, and therefore I give it some points for honesty -- the usual NY Times have-your-snobbery-and-eat-your-liberism-too style would have praised Penney's and chastized snobby New Yorkers for rejecting it --while all the while subtly insinuating that no one actually fashionable or of proper weight would be seen within a million miles of the store. The frankness of the article forces the style sections readership into a direct confrontation with the assholishness brutality of the fashion industry, and is therefore interesting.
105: Oh! Oh! I know! Populuxe is sitting in an airport departure lounge with a broken iPod!
Did I get it right?
Normally, I actually quite enjoy her critical shopper articles. I think she just had a massive misfire in which she forgot that slightly self-deprecating snideness and eyerolling are a lot more suitable when directed at stores for the wealthy that put on airs.
(I mean, I don't think she doesn't scorn Penney's. I'm sure she does.)
...slightly self-deprecating snideness and eyerolling are a lot more suitable when directed at stores for the wealthy that put on airs.
Most of this thread deals with a category of the non-wealthy who are not a little defined by the airs that they put on ("god-fearing," "patriotic," "real," etc.).
#105. Why am I watching cable news? The weather is shitty. I'm sick. I'm at work. Obviously, life isn't bad enough.
The lauding of the populist appeal of JCP towards the end of the piece is an interesting volte-face.
This niche has been almost wholly neglected on our snobby, self-obsessed little island. New York boutiques tend to cater to the stress-thin, morbidly workaholic, Pilates-tortured Manhattan ectomorph. But there are many more body types who vote with their hard-earned dollars, who appreciate a clean new space in Midtown to buy affordable clothes in hard-to-find sizes, as well as attentive service from attitude-free professionals.
First, the transition to this from unapologetic snobbery was jarring, and my first instinct was to think it an ass-covering move to be highlighted when people inevitably cried snobbery. ("But read to the end!" she'd protest. "I acknowledge the valuable role played by Penney's in the marketplace!")
Second, when (I believe) 2/3rds of the American population is overweight, are larger sizes really a "niche"?
Third, from a few grafs earlier, stocking larger sizes is "genius"? Soft bigotry, yadda yadda.
112: Maybe that last paragraph was added post-furor?
my first instinct was to think it an ass-covering move to be highlighted when people inevitably cried snobbery.
I think this is right, because the discussion of larger sizes in the article is incoherent enough that it can only be straight snobbery. First, obese mannequins? While I haven't personally seen the ones she's talking about, the mannequins in plus size stores generally aren't all that obese looking, and I really doubt Penney's has bigger ones. Then, she's not even talking plus sizes, but the higher end of straight sizes, and they're simply not hard to find in Manhattan -- I'm a size ten, usually, which is in the range she's praising Penney for carrying, and I don't have any trouble buying clothes. I'm sure there are million-dollar boutiques where the biggest size is a six, but not enough of them to make selling clothes to the larger end of the misses range anything adventurous or exciting at all around here.
So she's making up stuff about fat people to be disgusted by, and then covering by making up stuff about fat people to be supportive about. All fiction from start to finish.
I haven't been to the Penneys. Maybe I should; it's nearly impossible to find dress shirts that aren't open well down into the cleavage before there's a button.
New York (ok, a certain class of New Yorkers, mostly non-native) have a bizarre Platonic ideal of "The New Yorker" that has little to no connection with the actually-existing inhabitants of New York. Overweight? Must be a tourist.
New York (ok, a certain class of New Yorkers, mostly non-native) have a bizarre Platonic ideal of "The New Yorker" that has little to no connection with the actually-existing inhabitants of New York.
Yeah. I blame the people who move to NYC to get trendy jobs after college and leave when they get married or have kids.
Tourists have different kinds of highlights/dye in their hair from NYers, they talk more loudly to their friends in public, they make a different kind of eye contact, and they don't sit on the subway even though there are plenty of seats available. (The last is also common with businesspeople in town for a meeting.) Obese doesn't "code" as out-of-towner.
I guess all those things are also true of NYU students.
Obese doesn't "code" as out-of-towner.
Yes and no. One person at a time it doesn't -- if you've got a group of people who look like tourists for the other reasons you gave, and they're also all on the heavy side, it adds to the tourist impression.
I was once walking in downtown Manhattan with a female friend, who's not rail thin but not fat, and her two young daughters. Their apartment, where they'd lived for years, was two blocks away; mine was a 10-minute subway ride away in Brooklyn. A thin, 50-something woman dressed all in black pushed past us on the street and hissed so we could hear, "Fucking tourists!"
The Wicked Witch of the West Side.
121: Maybe she didn't really think you were tourists -- maybe it just seemed to her to be the most horrible possible insult.
Tourists can be a little annoying in public, especially if they're doing some kind of awful "It's my big day in the city and I'm going to SCREAM!" business, but mostly I just want to pull them aside and advise them not to talk quite so loudly about not knowing where they're going and pointing out whose pocket has all the money in it.
Re: teabagging etymology
There's no sucking involved, since the teabaggee is not usually a voluntary participant (often asleep or passed out). Thus, the teabagger is dunking, not unlike one would do with a teabag.
I always thought there were parallel derivations: teabag = tbag = testicle bag. Plus the dipping.
124: I generally like having them around -- I have a tendency to notice tourists and then look in a vaguely smugly self-satisfied way around at my city: "Yes, it is nice, isn't it? Can I help you with directions anyplace?" They do make the Times Square area a living hell with their inability to walk on crowded sidewalks without creating traffic jams, and I occasionally find myself loathing them for getting in my way at other times, but as long as they're not walking slowly, four abreast, in my way I'm fond of them.
125: Oh, I hadn't realized -- teabagging fundamentally refers to a prank rather than a sex act?
My cousin is a sixth -- sixth!! -- generation Manhattanite, who is a little overweight and will wear the dreaded shorts on occasion, and has various stories of folks mistaking him for a tourist. When I lived in NYC, it was nice to have a connection to a family with absolutely zero anxiety or concern about what it does or doesn't mean to be a New Yorker.
I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that teabagging is a prank and not a sex act.
I wonder if people think I'm a local -- I'm not particularly heavy, but nowhere near works-in-the-fashion-industry thin, and I dress badly. Everyone certainly thought I was an out-of-towner when I was a teenager, because I had a not-from-around-here accent -- those conversations used to piss me off no end.
"Where are you from?"
"Here."
"Oh, when did you move here?"
"I was born here. On seventeenth and Second."
"Oh, you grew up someplace else -- where was that?"
"I've always lived here."
[grasping at straws] "Oh, where are your parents from?"
"Queens."
But that hasn't happened since I was a teenager -- I figure I sound less weird than I used to.
130: So where did you get the funny accent?
Being a weird kid -- I think I just sounded a little over-formal, and that threw people off. But no geographical explanation for it. And no one ever had a geographical theory; I certainly never had people telling me I sounded Finnish or anything.
Is see. So your accent just coded as funny.
I met a young woman at a party a few weeks ago who accent and vocal mannerisms were similar to LB's. She was from the Upper West Side.
the teabaggee is not usually a voluntary participant
Venue-dependent, of course.
I had a not-from-around-here accent
I get that a lot, but only from people who have moved here from elsewhere. "You don't *sound* Southern." Sure I do. We don't all sound like Gomer Pyle, you know.
Being a weird kid -- I think I just sounded a little over-formal, and that threw people off. And everyone accused me of having a British accent.
I was once hiking near the Great Sand Dunes with an old hippie and we ran into a couple of hunters and chatted them up for a while. "Are you from England?" they asked me. "Nope," I said, "just pretentious."
"You don't *sound* Southern."
It's begun to occur to me that commenting on people's accents may not be a great idea. I tend to do it when I talk to someone I've met online for the first time: "Oh, hey, you have a Canadian accent! That's great!" or, "Huh, I thought you'd have more of a Texas accent."
This rarely goes over well, despite the fact that it really was just an ejaculation good-hearted, smiling sort of blunt remark on my part.
Am I p0wnd if I post
peopleofwalmart.com
?
I generally like having them around
My response to complaints about tourists generally is 'Would you really prefer to live someplace that nobody wants to visit?' I use it whether I'm in NYC, visiting family in Krakow (So you wish you lived in Katowice?), or being a tourist myself.
I had a not-from-around-here accent
I've gotten a 'you have a European accent' from people. WTF is a 'European' accent?
In Poland on the other hand I either get the 'How old were you when you moved to America?' question if I haven't been there long, or, whenever I've lived there, 'you're from x province, right?' Where x province is any place other than where I happen to be. Poles aren't used to the foreign born actually speaking their language fluently.
I've gotten a 'you have a European accent' from people. WTF is a 'European' accent?
Foreign, white person, not British or Australian.
WTF is a 'European' accent?
Slightly formal, and something a little off about the vowels. Mostly its "Non-British/Commonwealth accent, faint enough that I can't place it."
They do make the Times Square area a living hell
I was about to object that the Times Square area is a living hell no matter who happens to be in it, but I suppose if you remove the tourists you remove its raison d'être and the whole thing just evaporates.
The other day I heard someone speak whose voice, accent, and word choice were all really, really similar to mine. He was a lifelong Californian. This puzzles me.
143: Without all the tourists you could at least walk through briskly.
144: A bit? I wouldn't put it that way, but there's something about the way you talk that could lead to that reaction. Very faint, though.
Upon finding out where I grew up, people sometimes remark with mild surprise, "You don't seem to have a Minnesota accent!" I tend to take this as a compliment and with some relief. As in, "Phew, this person probably doesn't think I'm some backwoods rube!"
145 - Awesome, dude. You must be so proud.
I wonder how long the New York non-rhotic accent will survive, at least within NYC itself (the Jersey and LI accents seem likely to be with us for a while). Even native NY kids seem to have increasingly rhotic accents these days, based on my relatively limited observations. My Dad still talks about the old Brooklyn and NY patrician accents, which Ive never heard in person and I think are close to totally gone.
I also believe that something like an LA accent is emerging, a combination of Chicano speech patterns and the CaliforNia vowel shift. But IANALing.
I wonder how long the New York non-rhotic accent will survive, at least within NYC itself (the Jersey and LI accents seem likely to be with us for a while). Even native NY kids seem to have increasingly rhotic accents these days, based on my relatively limited observations. My Dad still talks about the old Brooklyn and NY patrician accents, which Ive never heard in person and I think are close to totally gone.
I also believe that something like an LA accent is emerging, a combination of Chicano speech patterns and the CaliforNia vowel shift. But IANALing.
Are the old patrician accents akin to what Katherine Hepburn and 1920s radio announcers had? If so, that needs to come back.
Judging by what I hear, young whites from South Brooklyn and SI tend to have a pretty strong stereotypical NY accent. The old patrician one does seem to be on its last legs. I've heard it, but only among the elderly.
My understanding is that the classic NY upper class accent is similar to the Hepburn accent, but more nasal. This all comes second hand from my Dad, though. If I was at my desk I'd YouTube some old Nelson Rockefeller speeches, since he probably had it.
Oh, and regarding obesity in NYC: About a year ago, Anna Wintour remarked that the people she saw on a recent trip to Minnesota could "kindly" be described as "little houses". After this, I wondered just how much skinnier people in NYC were than the nation as a whole. And the answer is that yes, while 63.4% of the nation was overweight or obese, 57.7% of NYC MSA residents met those criteria. That was a much smaller difference than I expected, which suggests that Wintour ought to be regularly seeing some little houses much closer to home.
The difference between this statistic for the NYC and the Minneapolis-St. Paul MSAs (presumably Wintour would have visited the Twin Cities, and not Woebegon) is even smaller, not surprisingly. MSP is 59.7% overweight or obese—only 2% more than the NYC metro.
But of course, the NYC MSA is huge and heterogeneous, so we want to drill down further. I figured that once I got down to just the five boroughs, I'd see much bigger differences between NYC and MSP. And what surprised me most was that when I went to the county level (which is accessible from the MSA pages), it's really only Manhattan that looks to be dramatically thinner than everywhere else.
NY County: 44.5% (18.9% less than national avg.)
Kings County: 63.2% (0.2% less than ")
Queens County: 54.6% (8.8% less than ")
Hennepin County (where Minneapolis is located), meanwhile, is 57.8% overweight or obese.
So, eliding of the distinction between overweight and obese, my conclusion was that if Wintour was surprised by what she saw in MN then she probably just doesn't get out that all often, since if she just headed over to Brooklyn she could see pretty much the same thing.
Re: accents, the blogger don't know it, but his rather interesting map of facebook connections corresponds to US dialects:
http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/02/how-to-split-up-the-us.html
One might almost think that being in the fashion industry, she is exposed to a lot of thin people.
</making fun of myself so you don't have to>
I've been told a few times I have a funny accent. My mom's theory is that she has a supressed gothenburg accent and my dad has a supressed northern accent and both have rubbed off on me.
SF County (coterminous with SF City) is 46.6% overweight or obese, so we're just fatter than Manhattan. (Big confidence intervals on the results of this phone survey, BTW.) I'd like to see numbers for Marin.
Back to the OP, () has fallen victim to an organized and intentional disinformation campaign. Anti-environmentalists want those they oppose viewed as rich elitists. The same way GHWB wanted Bill Clinton, or Se. McCain wanted Barack Obama, to be considered privileged elitists.
LB's diction has reminded me of Katherine Hepburn. Did I mention before that my dad's uncle used to date her?
if Wintour was surprised by what she saw in MN then she probably just doesn't get out that all often
It is possible. Selection bias, we call that.
On the accent question: aren't people's accents affected as much by where they've lived as by their parents' accents? I say yes.
This is a phone survey?? Dude, people in Manhattan just suck in their guts and lie a lot.
Also:
USA Likes
o Starbucks
o Dislike Button
o I need a vacati...
o God
o Freeze Pops
o Megan Fox
o Michael Jackson
o FarmVille
o I ♥ SLEEP
o The Beach
UK likes
o Cheryl Cole
o Stavros Flatley
o The Chris Moyle...
o Random laughter...
o Lee Evans
o I hate waking u...
o Megan Fox
o Kings Of Leon
o Randomely laugh...
o I need a vacati...
Switzerland likes
Likes
o Roger Federer
o Dr. House
o Sid
o Starbucks
o Vin Diesel
o I love summer
o Megan Fox
o Schwiizerdütsch
Germany
Likes
o Two and a Half ...
o Mafia Wars
o FarmVille
o Michael Jackson
o Starbucks
o Barack Obama
o Megan Fox
Canada
Likes
o Megan Fox
o Michael Jackson
o I really hate s...
o I hate waking u...
o I don't sl...
o Twilight
o Shut up, The Wo...
o The Beach
o Peter Griffin
o I need a vacati...
Sweden Likes
o ICA-Jerry
o Sverigedemokrat... (not letting rightwing nuts get elected to the riksdag)
o Älskar att bli ... (getting scratched on your back)
o Att vakna bredv...
o Vi som gillar J... (julmust, a yummy seasonal beverage)
o Grannen i Beck
o Make a "don't like" button on facebook!!
o Johnny Cash
o Julen (christmas)
Only the Swiss Germans love Swiss German, les Romands hate it, and given the increasing refusal of the Swiss Germans to actually speak German they're wondering why they should bother learning it. Amusingly, I recently read that the SVP is adding Germans to their mix of bad foreigners who refuse to assimilate: evidence - they don't learn Swiss German.
I'm off to get drunk 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans. Maybe it's 4,000 yards from 300 Cubans, but 200 yards from 50 Jamaicans.
My Swiss German colleague says of her people "We hate the Germans" with a frequency that I find weird.
Back to the OP, () has fallen victim to an organized and intentional disinformation campaign
Is it that campaign that's preventing her from anesthesia-commenting for us?
LB dated CC's granduncle?!
Did CC mention that he's half Samoan?
Isnät it FDR's accent?
"Isnät" sounds more like a Scottish accent than Swedish.
I do not believe that my dad's uncle took Ms. Hepburn skinny dipping in the moonlight.
170: Sadly for you all, I had only about 30 minutes of complete and total out-of-it-ness and during that time I was too busy to comment. I did apparently sneeze bloody mucous all over my friend, though!
And now, though I am on Vicodin, I feel fully coherent. Not quite awake enough to read the whole thread, but yeah.
173: Sadly indeed. But hooray for getting over anesthesia quickly. And for Vicodin!
I like "sneeze bloody mucous" as an alternative to "scream bloody murder."
175 gets it right. And hope you don't feel any discomfort, Parenthetical!
I'm feeling great. It's a little odd. And I miss my teeth.
When all four of my wisdom teeth were pulled, I was pretty much fine, except for the regular healing. It was only a 20-30 operation. I did end up with a cold just a few days later.
When I had mine out, I went under, and had no pain, but when I woke up, the anesthetic made me really sick for about an hour. After that, I couldn't take the pain meds they gave me. I'm not good at drugs.
My God, I've tried. I keep a mental list of drugs I'm OK at and the No Not Even If It's Really Tempting ones.
The anesthetic appears to have given me no problems beyond bad judgment, confusion, and memory loss for about an hour. I was pretty worried about puking. And Vicodin does nothing to me beyond remove any pain, so that's also a plus.
Vicodin is on my OK list, in moderation, but it's pretty habit-forming. Oxycodone didn't reduce pain and made me a raging bitch.
I know lots of people with that old-fashioned new York accent, though it's much more prevalent in my grandfather's generation. my grandad has a guy who works for him--they were both born in southampton (40 years apart) but have radically different accents. Kieth has a lawn-guyland accent while my granddad's is Hepburn. It's a pure class-based difference.
And Charley's smoking crack -- I don't have the Hepburn/Plimpton accent at all (nor the family background that would explain it). Interestingly accented family members of mine were 'dese, dem, and dose' and 'toity-toid and toid' (33d and 3d) speakers, if you go back to my grandparents/great-aunts and uncles on the non-Irish accented side.
186: George Plimpton, not long before he died, announced to Bill Buckley something like "We're the only two left with our NY accent," but it sounds like your grandfather has them beat.
We've talked about this before, but I am bemused by how quickly and completely that accent died. I've never heard it on anyone younger than Plimpton. Are there younger rich people who talk like that, and I just don't know rich people?
189: We're rich in spirit and heart and stuff.
But do you talk through your sinuses with your teeth clenched?
No, but maybe now is the time to try. I've been spending a great deal of time out in the cold and my sinuses are very clear right now.
Oh, Oxycodone. The one drug that anyone's been willing to prescribe or offer me that will completely *erase* back pain.
LB: I'll totally talk like that all day long for a decent salary. I'll invest the money in profitable things. You'll have the pleasure of hearing it from time to time. I'll become a rich person who talks like that. What could go wrong?
LB, I think you should take it up. Just show up for work tomorrow in full Locust Valley Lockjaw and saying things like "It's mad! Mad, I tell you!" and report back.
And when someone says something you already know, respond with "I know it."
Next step: start the facebook group "I bet we can get 1,000,000 people to adopt the George Plimpton/William F. Buckley accent".
I think it may have been linked here before (let me tell you about the superiority of manual transmissions), but here is an interesting little piece on Buckley's specific manner of speaking.
