The seventy-secondrst episode of our podcast, Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), is now online.
This week’s episode: we bitch a little about Skype (fabulous, free technology); Storm addresses some responses to last week’s podcast; the pronunciation of “root” and other regional funkiness; recounting Florida experiences both wonderful and horrible; Storm questions his douchebagginess; old-school video-gaming; yummy, yummy tacos; and finding your friends in Anathem.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION ALERT: How do you pronounce “root?” What other regional pronunciation/terminology issues have you run into? Also, is Storm a douchebag?
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12 Comments
Nope, no problem with being seat-specific on planes. It doesn’t matter what class you’re in. I hate flying, so I categorically don’t do window seats unless I have no other choice. Also, having to constantly climb over two other people to get out when your flight is more than 12 hours long…kinda sucks.
When I did telephone tech support for Americans, I got accused of having a Canadian accent–specifically of saying “aboot”–which I categorically deny. Most of my regionalisms are similarly tied to the 49th parallel.
I found myself saying “taco cart” at the prompt. I am somewhat ashamed.
“Root” rhymes with “boot,” at least as I pronounce it.
“Down cellar” is at least as widespread as New England. My relatives from Maine and New Hampshire use it. Root rhymes with boot, loot, suit, and w00t.
Being in the nerd dorm in college, we had great fun comparing regionalisms — soda vs pop, sprinkles vs jimmies* (as in ice cream toppings), water fountain vs bubbler, various different pronunciations of common words. Like I said, nerd dorm.
@Sarah — I’ve always heard the Canadian pronunciation of about as something closer to “a boat”. At least, from the folks on Degrassi and due South. I think they must beat it out of the actors in Vancouver these days.
It’s not specifically racist, but there’s a Chinese place in my town called Yum Mee. More of a vaguely racist pun.
(* I’ve tried to stop using “jimmies” to refer to chocolate sprinkles, as it apparently has racist origins.)
Debate about the pronunciation of “root” is a conversation I’ve had many a time, which is not all that surprising since it’s my married name. My husband and I always pronounce it ˈrüt (rhymes with boot), but several of my in-laws insist that it should be pronounced ˈru̇t. I’ll stick with the the former and leave the latter to them.
@Robin – Your dorm sounds like my kind of place. 🙂
Everyone is capable of Douchebag moments. It’s only when those moments happen most of the time that you become said bag of douche.
The regionalism I grew up with and hate with a passion is “warsh,” as is,” Remember to warsh the dishes.” I don’t understand where it comes from but I hear it all the time back home.
My hometown is a small town (pop. 1800ish) in Alabama called Eutaw. It is an exTREMEly racist place, which is one of the main reasons I high-tailed it out of there as soon as I turned 18 and have never looked back.
We had a restaurant on the outskirts of town called The Cotton Patch. When I was growing up, the place was completely awesome and had some of the best food ever.
However, all of the waitresses (you’ll notice I do not say “servers”) were dressed like Aunt Jemima.
Of course, at the time, I thought nothing of it. But later, as I grew up and grew a brain in my head, I realized just how demeaning it was.
The place burned down about the time I reached double digits, was rebuilt in the next town over (Union, Alabama) just off the Interstate, and the outfits remained until relatively recently when the place was sold and the new owners finally discontinued the uniforms.
Other than Sambo’s, I think that’s the most blatantly racist place I’ve ever been to.
I grew up on the Jersey Shore and we loved our regionalisms: Locals call an obnoxious summer tourist (especially from N. Jersey or NY) a ‘benny’ and South Jersey Shore refers to their Philly tourists ‘shoobies’. Let’s just say the two phrases are not exactly terms of endearment and “benny go home” is a common and wonderfully derogatory phrase.
While not as grammatically odd as “down cellar” there’s also “Down the Shore”. Ironically, I never really used this growing up (b/c I was already *at* the Shore) but I use it quite frequently now that I live 200+ miles south of the NJ shore line. So I tell people I’m driving north for the holidays to go down the shore.
Methinks I need to seek out this fabled taco cart next time I’m in Rosslyn.
Taco carts/stands are a way of life in San Diego. A few years back I moved to Chicago for work for a bit and although Chicago is an AMAZING food city it was severely lacking in the taco stands. Whenever I flew back into San Diego I’d head straight for the Guac/sour cream/cheese loaded Carne Asada Fries or California Burrito. Unlike rice pudding it never-ever gets old….of course with the fat/cholesterol/etc you will never get old eating it either.
Even though I played the Atari 2600 when i was about six years old still can remember combat like it was yesterday. I especially like the ping pong ball version of the tank battles and getting the angles on the jets juuuust right so you could fly through the screen and shoot them again just when they stopped spinning. Made for some maddening battles with the friends.
To root, or not to rut…that is the cellar door…When in Dallas, Paul-you too, Storm- you must try the Taco Cart right next to the Granada. There are many great Taco…Cart…’s….in Texas, but that is amazing…Mwahahaha!
By the way, how old is Paul and Storm…respectively, of course.
Root, like the Canadians way of saying about, “a boot”, or to break wind and “toot”. Not Rut like put.
If you like Anathem, try any book by Jasper FForde. They’re really surreal. Also please come back to the UK soon. Seeing you in San Fran was great but its a bit of an expensive trip.
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