The boss's latest avatar

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:19 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:I rather like Dale's avatar. I remember watching the Beatles when they first appeared on thet show. It was a huge deal.

Dude! Me too! I hated them.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:22 pm

Nanohedron wrote:
Joseph E. Smith wrote:I rather like Dale's avatar. I remember watching the Beatles when they first appeared on thet show. It was a huge deal.
Dude! Me too! I hated them.

In Feb 1964, I was still an accident waiting to happen.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:23 pm

Nanohedron wrote:
Joseph E. Smith wrote:I rather like Dale's avatar. I remember watching the Beatles when they first appeared on thet show. It was a huge deal.
Dude! Me too! I hated them.

I don't remember it (my dad was all of ten years old then, I think)... but I do remember that awful cartoon show they had.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:26 pm

Walden wrote:
Cynth wrote:When I was growing up, I was taught that the two words you just used were extremely pejorative. They were not uttered by anyone I ever had any contact with. The first word was probably not much in use anyway, but the second word I was taught would only be used by very bad people.
While I certainly didn't grow up saying it, heaven knows most of the older generation and a fair part of the younger generation did, around here.

Well, when that word was used by those people, was it used in an extremely pejorative way? Or was it used like the word "yank" is used for Americans by those abroad? I would have thought surely those among the younger generation that used the word flange could only be doing so knowing it was an extremely pejorative word. I don't take "yank" as used for Americans by those abroad as being pejorative unless it is accompanied by other words like "Go Home". I'm not sure what your point is I guess.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:40 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:I rather like Dale's avatar. I remember watching the Beatles when they first appeared on thet show. It was a huge deal.

was wasn't it!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:44 pm

jsluder wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:
Joseph E. Smith wrote:I rather like Dale's avatar. I remember watching the Beatles when they first appeared on thet show. It was a huge deal.
Dude! Me too! I hated them.
In Feb 1964, I was still an accident waiting to happen.

I remember seeing that, but it must not have been the original showing. Feb. '64...I was way ahead of you Slude, I think I was potty training, and probably had it almost under control right about then, but I'm sure there were still some accidents waiting to happen.
Wait, here I am, 2 months before that broadcast:
My sister's trying to convince me that Paul is the cute one, and I'm saying George is more my type.

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:48 pm

Bloomfield wrote:
Walden wrote: What of those who grew up calling African persons of color "darkeys" or "niggers," is that to go as normal too? Will it pass without comment because some scholars suppose the speaker's people coined the term?
I see where you want to go with this, and I am sympathetic to the impluse to educate speakers about the unsuspected implications labels may have to the labelled. But I can't help but notice a certain irony in the parallel you are constructing between the sensitivities of Southerners and the plight of American slaves and their descendants.

Ouch... Ironic indeed. Nevertheless, Walden's intended point was valid.

Cran, to put a different angle on what Bloomie was trying to get across: you may or may not (and evidently aren't) a yank(ee). On the other hand, we are divided by a common language, and divergence is something that happens quickly. Due to past British ignorance of American terminology - and, to an extent, of American history - the words 'yank' or 'yankee' came to mean an American. There is no distinction intended between north or south, nor any implication intended regarding the historical or cultural loyalties of the American in question. The term tends not to be used as an insult in itself. It passed into common usage many years ago out of ignorance. It is not particularly commonly used these days - indeed it is a bit archaic (Steve's showing his age

).

Yes it is an inaccurate usage, but cultural separation and divergence have caused similar confusion to Americans who refer to Irish people as British, and Welsh people as English etc etc etc.

As for Sullivan, The Dubliners went on his show in 1968 and he wouldn't let them sing '7 Drunken Nights', they had to do another song. Barney McKenna didn't like the man at all.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:05 pm

Blimey, I started a thread then made the fatal error of being away for 24 hours.

(I was visiting my in-laws actually). I'll never, ever, do that again (starting a thread which I then abandon, not visiting my in-laws I hasten to add). And from now on I'm avoiding "yanks" like the plague and sticking to "Merkins."

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:09 pm

Call me a Yank if you like. I don't care in the slightest. And Merkin cracks me up.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:10 pm

Nanohedron wrote:Call me a Yank if you like. I don't care in the slightest. And Merkin cracks me up.

Either one is capable of a "dirty" interpretation.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:20 pm

Walden wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:Call me a Yank if you like. I don't care in the slightest. And Merkin cracks me up.
Either one is capable of a "dirty" interpretation.

Fits me to a "T".

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:26 pm

Walden wrote:Either one is capable of a "dirty" interpretation.

When someone is determined to find any excuse to take insult, it is seldom worthwhile bothering to see if one has succeeded or not.

djm

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:51 pm

The Beatles, yup, good band that... uh huh, yup..... Ed Sullivan liked them so much, he asked them back, and they came too.... yup.... sure did...

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:02 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:The Beatles, yup, good band that... uh huh, yup..... Ed Sullivan liked them so much, he asked them back, and they came too.... yup.... sure did...

We keep trying. *sigh*

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:03 pm

Bloomfield wrote: That's interesting. Some form of education certainly comes into it: The problem is not just one of negative labeling, though. In referring to "yanks" I am sure that the English and Irish I hear doing it are not implying that Southerns don't have their own identy, weren't wronged by Lincoln, etc. etc. But the distinction that you might want to draw in America doesn't exist in the context of an English/Irish speaker pointing out differences between English and US popular culture. There are some fascinating aspects to these vanishing and re-appearing distinctions in the language.

While I do think that Peeplj is right, that it has to do with more than the late war of 150 years ago, I essentially agree with Bloomfield's sentiments that it is unfair to expect the British to understand the nuances as we may experience them in these United States. While I admit, like Cran, it bothers me, I didn't really take offense, as I didn't suppose any slur was intended, in the blanket referencing to Yanks and a television show that was off the air before I was even born.