Secular Confessions

[demigraf]

Your dad sounds like a hoot, Bridget!

I felt like a brat complaining the way that I did. This was totally a FWP, I know, but I was perturbed by his response. He'd make me a surfboard as a present, and build a piece of furniture for me if I asked him to, so it's not the effort that he's against. He just came down so hard on my idea with this huge scowling wall of negativity. He does that sometimes; I throw something out there and his reaction is not just to just say no, but to be forceful about it, as though the fact I asked him made him angry. Maybe I insulted his abilities, like Ash said. He gets this way if I suggest that he change into a collared shirt or that he use correct grammar (which I now know better than to do anymore). In this case, though, I was just hoping my idea would be fun for him. (And seriously, 90% of his shots are out of focus, even when I set the camera up for him). I have to say his closed-off reaction was a disappointment.

Anyway, after I pouted HARD for an hour, I got into bed with him. he rolled over and said he'd take the class. So I guess he knew his reaction was kind of defensive.

I once got to being home the box of silkworms from class to babysit over the weekend. I fell asleep holding one and never found it again. Oops.

[Ky'sMom]

Bridget that is hilarious!!!

I always tell people that they're "on crack" whenever I see too much of their actual crack. DH hates it since he's always on crack since like me he suffers from the noassatall syndrome and he likes to wear pants that are too big for him because he thinks he's fatter than he actually is, he's actually not fat, but thinks he is.



Erin

[Cosmosmom]

So we have talked before about regional differences and I found out that I grew up with an Inland Northern accent....basically the areas around the great lakes. Found this and thought it was so true for most of it for me. Except the bubblers....that is a Milwaukee thing and I'm from south of there. And the Tyme machine made me laugh....that is so totally what they were called most of my life and it's probably only been the last few years I have thought of them as ATM's. But I know a lot of people still say Tyme machine. The tennis shoes is mostly what we call them though once in a while it will be gym shoes because well I lived just on the WI of the IL border so we get some Chicago influence too. Rarely use sneakers.

Ok, now to figure out the accent of where I currently live! Ok definitely a Minnesota accent....this describes it pretty well. And I'm starting to get a little bit of it...which makes my family really laugh. Haven't said uff da yet but I hear people say it but I do the yah or yah sure thing a lot!

The Minnesotan accent is a slight variation of North Central American English, as depicted by films such as Fargo; it has been lampooned as an "odd, sing-songy Scandinavian manner of speech, full of laconic sentences ending in Yah".[2] The media has made it appear that the local vocabulary is sprinkled with Scandinavian-sounding words such as uff da and terms such as "you betcha" and "yah sure," though particularly among older populations these phrases are still relatively frequent.

What do you all use for some of these?


Note that not all of these are specific to the region.

• Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
• (Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
• Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda." Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region.) In parts of eastern Wisconsin and in a huge area centered around St. Louis, soda is more common.
• Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
• Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
• Tennis shoes' or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers.
• Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler.

Individual cities and regions also have their own vocabularies. For example:

• in eastern and southern Wisconsin, drinking fountains are known as bubblers
• in the Chicago area, sneakers are often known as gym shoes
• in Michigan, convenience stores are called party stores
• in Detroit, sliding glass doors may be called doorwalls
• Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Binghamton residents say "sneakers" rather than "tennis shoes"
• in Cleveland the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street is called a tree lawn, whereas in nearby Akron the same space is called a devilstrip.
• Automated Teller Machines (ATM) are called Take Your Money Everywhere (TYME) throughout most of Wisconsin, resulting in locals asking, "Where's the nearest Tyme machine?" Used outside of this area people will think they are being asked directions to a time machine.

[Bridget]

Funny. Dbf gave me heck about calling it a bubbler the other day. He's canadian so says all kinds of weird stuff. He's also one of those people who thinks everyone who lives in the usa should learn to speak english so I give him a hard time when he uses canadian jargon and tell him if he is going to live in our country he needs to learn to speak our language. He calls the ceiling the roof and says "mirrah" instead of "mirror" just to name a few.

At drop off this morning one of the mom's told me that for the past 3 days her 3 year old is up at like 4am, dressed with her backpack on and comes into mom's bedroom and asks if she can drive her to my house. Her mom is glad she loves it here but the cuteness of that is wearing off quick! lol

[Ky'sMom]

You forgot the "sweeper" for a vacuum. I know many people in the great lakes states call a vacuum a sweeper. I do as well. It bugs the heck out of DH. I also call a pillow case a pillow sheet and every time I say pillow sheet he tries to get me to say pillow case. It is pretty funny.

Bridget your DBF needs to stick to his own ideals and go back to Canada until he can learn to speak American LOL!!

Erin

[3andMe]

Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
(Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda." Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region.) In parts of eastern Wisconsin and in a huge area centered around St. Louis, soda is more common.
Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
Tennis shoes' or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers.
Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler.

I underlined the ones I use. I use drinking and water fountain pretty much equally, I think. Also, I lived in Madison off and on until I was about 5, so I remember a lot of people calling them bubblers, but I either outgrew it or didn't develop it myself because my dad wasn't from there and we moved around so much.

I don't like tags in my clothing either, Bridget, but I'm pretty careful not to leave holes in them and IF I accidentally cut a hole I would be even more careful not to wear that article sans underwear. Also, having seen men in sweats without underwear, I have to say they are not very forgiving. I wasn't even there, and I wish I had a BB gun, too.

Mylah, poor silkworm! Still, it's better than the time that my sister and I were both trying to catch an escaped gerbil behind a cushion and we each came out triumphantly with part of it. Luckily, gerbils do fine without their tails.

FWIW, my dh is a very excellent photographer, with a fantastic camera, but it doesn't really do me any good. He rarely takes pictures of me or the kids except under duress or on really special occasions. He did some at the hospital when baby S. was born, for example, and has done some on vacations, but he prefers landscapes and native people. He doesn't really have the patience or inclination for taking pictures of kids, and probably the thing about taking pictures of us and our family is that we get to see the results afterward and comment on them. He's never said it, but I would guess he hates that. With strangers and traveling, nobody ever looks over his shoulder and says, "Hmm, I wish I didn't have such a weird expression there." Some of his photos have been used by travel websites and one museum in Italy asked him if they could put some up for an exhibit.

ETA: It makes me a little self-conscious about all the photos I take for our family, because he really is technically so much better than I am, but he's very gracious about telling me I have a good eye and good composition, and despite the fact that I don't really know much about how to use my camera, we both enjoy looking at scenes and talking about this or that would make a good photo.

[girlwonder]

Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
(Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda." Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region.) In parts of eastern Wisconsin and in a huge area centered around St. Louis, soda is more common.
Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
Tennis shoes' or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers.
Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler.

I say peach seed or peach pit interchangeably, the same with faucet vs. spigot. Definitely say seesaw, never teetertotter. I say tennyshoes and tunyfish, but those may be personal?

And they don't have "tumped over" - when something falls over or someone falls down sometimes I say they tumped over. Not sure if this is Southern or just Texas?

Mylah, poor silkworm! Still, it's better than the time that my sister and I were both trying to catch an escaped gerbil behind a cushion and we each came out triumphantly with part of it. Luckily, gerbils do fine without their tails.

I did that trying to catch my runaway gerbil. Before the tail loss her name was Marion. After the loss and subsequent gnawing off of the cartilage (shudder), her name, according to my brother, was Stumpy.

[AmeriBrit]

It's hard for me to remember what American words I used to say, but they were definitely Southern. Now i'm all about Brit speak with words like queue, pushchair, dummy and nappy.

[daylilies]

• I've bolded the terms I use (and I can never figure out how to get rid of stray bullet points)
• Faucetvs. Southern spigot.
• (Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
• Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda." Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region.) In parts of eastern Wisconsin and in a huge area centered around St. Louis, soda is more common.
• Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy. (I usually call it a carriage actually)
• Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
• Tennis shoes' or 'gym shoes' vs. New Englandsneakers.
• Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler.

The TYME machine thing is cracking me up. I'd feel like I was in an episode of Dr. Who if someone asked me that. I'd be like "Uhhh...I dunno, look for the big blue police box."

[demigraf]

L, I think your photos are fantastic. Love the new siggy again.

I grew up in So. Cal, so let's see if any of my answers are different from L's. I bolded all the things I say...


Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
(Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda."
Lollipops are also known as "suckers" (I grew up saying both.)
Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw. (Both again)
Tennis shoes/tennies or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers. "Trainers" too, but maybe I picked that up when I lived in the UK
Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler. (<---I love that. I wish I grew up calling it a bubbler)

DH's family in MA/NH/ME point out regional differences between the things we say all the time.

For example, I prefix highway numbers with "the", as in "It's rush hour on the 405." They think that's funny.
I call those tiny candy things for topping dessert "sprinkles" while DH and fam all call them "Jimmies"
I say "carpool lane"; they say "commuter lane" or sometimes "HOV lane"
I say stand "in line" and they all say stand "on line"

I'm sure there are more, but work beckons. I can't wait for the weekend to begin!

[demigraf]

Kate, DH calls the shopping cart "carriage" too. It must be a NE thing.

[Bridget]

One of our friends from Hawaii is coming to visit us tonight! He's a flight attendant and was able to get a last minute flight from Atlanta where he has a house. I am SO excited. He is the only one of dbf's friends who I consider my friend too. I used to have him watch Savana for me when I worked nights and dbf was doing his pubcrawl job. We can talk for hours. AND he's gay and single so my brother is coming over to meet him and hang out with us. So.Excited.

Sorry to be totally off topic btw.

Oh, and has Chrissy posted today?

[daylilies]

See, I was always taught that jimmies are the chocolate ones and sprinkles are the colored ones. Not everyone up here goes by that though.

Chrissy posted on facebook that the power is out and data service is spotty.

[Gwenn]

Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
(Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda." Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region.) In parts of eastern Wisconsin and in a huge area centered around St. Louis, soda is more common.
Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw. (Seesaw is southern? I never heard teeter totter in Westchester - but I have DH, who is from Arizona/Texas say teeter totter. His parents are Canadian, though).
'Tennis shoes' or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers. (Sometimes tennis shoes).
Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler. (about equally)
Individual cities and regions also have their own vocabularies. For example:
in eastern and southern Wisconsin, drinking fountains are known as bubblers
in the Chicago area, sneakers are often known as gym shoes
in Michigan, convenience stores are called party stores
in Detroit, sliding glass doors may be called doorwalls
Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Binghamton residents say sneakers" rather than "tennis shoes"
in Cleveland the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street is called a tree lawn, whereas in nearby Akron the same space is called a devilstrip.
Automated Teller Machines (ATM) are called Take Your Money Everywhere (TYME) throughout most of Wisconsin, resulting in locals asking, "Where's the nearest Tyme machine?" Used outside of this area people will think they are being asked directions to a time machine.

Whoa - I've never heard of a tyme machine! I agree, I'd be looking around for Dr. Who!

[girlwonder]

So how's this for weird: I have gout. My foot started hurting on Wednesday and Thursday it got so bad I couldn't walk, so I went to the dr. this morning and she says it looks like gout. It's like I'm playing auto-immune disease whack-a-mole.

[Gwenn]

Gout? Oh, no!

[daylilies]

Whoa - I've never heard of a tyme machine! I agree, I'd be looking around for Dr. Who![/QUOTE]


Long as it's David Tennant, I don't mind looking!

Gout...I had to google it...and came up with an unpleasant "caricature" on wiki...but ouch! How is it treated?

[Gwenn]

Long as it's David Tennant, I don't mind looking!

Gout...I had to google it...and came up with an unpleasant "caricature" on wiki...but ouch! How is it treated?

Lol!

[girlwonder]

I was just typing a reply but I kept smelling something weird - thought maybe it was the wildfire smoke again. Finally asked my dh if he thought it smelled weird. He jumped up and ran to the kitchen - he had put popcorn on but the burner didn't light when he turned it on and he didn't notice it and went back out to watch his movie. Scary. Trying to air out the house, but I am still smelling it in my nose and probably will be all night now. I am on the back porch now using the iPad and trying to breathe real air. It definitely smells different than just a little whiff so I guess that is why I didn't catch on so quick.

Anyway: gout. Treated with anti-inflammatory for attacks and some sort of maintenance drug to keep the uric acid levels down. Such a drag. My brother had it for several years and I had no idea how painful it was for him, especially since he was working as a bartender at the time and was forced to walk on his painful feet so he could make his nut.

Now I am going down another google rabbit hole researching gout, arthritis, etc. I really hope I don't get arthritis. I need my hands.

[girlwonder]

Whoa - I've never heard of a tyme machine! I agree, I'd be looking around for Dr. Who!


Long as it's David Tennant, I don't mind looking!

Gout...I had to google it...and came up with an unpleasant "caricature" on wiki...but ouch! How is it treated?

Heehee - I love him as the Doctor. Getting used to the new guy, but still will always love him. Have been watching battlestar galactica the past couple of days so I am finally getting into it. Still a depressing start with everyone dying, but it is growing on me. I need something new because I a, all caught up with dr. Who and Torchwood.

[girlwonder]

Oh and I used to call them Tyme machines! I forgot all about that- went to college in Madison and when I came back home everyone laughed at me for looking for a time machine.

Gee whiz, give me a little gas and I get all chatty don't I?

[Gwenn]

Chatty is good - gassing yourself is not. Be careful!

[3andMe]

Oh Katy, poor you! Gout is really painful, and then it's really hard to get people to feel sorry for you when you have something that is aka "the disease of kings" or "rich man's illness" and they're all like "ooh la la, must be rough, huh?"

[AmeriBrit]

Gout sounds very painful! I hope yours goes away quickly, Katy! I've also been watching BSG and i'm on the next to last series. I really like it.

Dh and I went on a date last night and we had a good laugh people watching. The amount of women we saw with shoes on that they couldn't properly walk in was ridiculous!

[AmeriBrit]

Dp

[girlwonder]

Gout sounds very painful! I hope yours goes away quickly, Katy! I've also been watching BSG and i'm on the next to last series. I really like it.

Dh and I went on a date last night and we had a good laugh people watching. The amount of women we saw with shoes on that they couldn't properly walk in was ridiculous!

I hate that! I have seen so many girls in the stripper shoes who can't manage it and they just look ridiculous.

[girlwonder]

Thanks, Ash and Lydia. It feels better today, but I am still all off on my exercise schedule (still have all that weight I want to lose). I don't know what I am doing to cause the gout - I don't drink too much, maybe a couple of glasses of wine a week or a cocktail or something but that is it! I don't drink my diet cokes anymore or eat too much red meat or liver so I don't know. I really do feel like all this stuff happening in the past year is systemic but I have no way of figuring it out. It is just that when I dr. google all of my various annoying maladies are linked to each other, like if you have this you are more likely to have this, etc.

[Ky'sMom]

Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
(Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda."
Lollipops are also known as "suckers" (Lollipops are the huge suckers you get at fairs and such for me.)
Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw. Tennis shoes or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers.
Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler.

I say the bolded ones. I also say a lot of other things that people here in the South think are weird to say. I actually do say "soda" now most of the time but grew up calling it pop. I only started calling it soda after years of people pretending that they don't know what I'm talking about when I say I want some strawberry pop. They look at me dumbfounded. Some people have even admitted to me they don't serve "pop" they serve "soda" so if I ask for soda they will give it to me. I sometimes ask for a manager when this happens.

It is really funny to me when native Atlantans say to me "gurl, you talk so good!! Where you from? New York?" This has been said to me moer times than I can remember. Then the person will proceed to argue with me that I am not from Ohio, I am from New York.

So sorry to hear about your gout Katy. It does sound painful. I am also afraid of arthritis. Lots of people in my family have arthritis, but most have osteoarthritis from overuse and not rheumatoid, the autoimmune kind. So I use the osteoarthritis trait in our family as a reason to be lazy, for instance, after doing my 5K a few months ago, I decided I didn't want to run anymore, not because I didn't like it (I actually didn't like it that much but it wasn't intolerable) but because it may cause me to get osteoarthritis of the knee like my dad and grandma. But I really do not want to get any sort of arthritis and I was scared for DH when he was going through a bunch of testing a few months ago for autoimmune disorders. He had borderline numbers for lupus, which is not all that common in men, but he has an uncle with lupus and the doctors think he may develop it as he gets older. It is messed up that having one of these disorders makes it more likely that you will get others. He tested close for lupus and sarcoidosis (sp?) and rheumatoid arthritis. So for now he is just trying to cut back on all his bad habits and get in better shape so if it does develop hopefully it will be easier to deal with if he is healthier.

Erin

[AmeriBrit]

Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
(Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western and Central New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop" while Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda."
Lollipops are also known as "suckers" (Lollipops are the huge suckers you get at fairs and such for me.)
Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw. Tennis shoes or 'gym shoes' vs. New England sneakers.
Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain vs Bubbler.

I highlighted what I would say. To be fair, though, here in the UK, the equivalents are:
A shopping buggy/cart is a "trolley."
The faucet/spigot is a "tap."
The tennis shoes are "trainers."
Soda is "pop."
Suckers are called "lollies."

Pretty much everything has a different word here. No wonder I am not very eloquent these days. My brain is always trying to process who I am talking to and whether I should say "trash can" or "waste bin" instead and things like that! Aieee!

[Gwenn]

LOL! You're bilingual!