Re: Re: Accents, no worries OT

[Guest guest]

My daughter always refers to something ruffly, feminine, as " froofie. " She is

not a froofie person, but her daughter is, which irritates her to some extent.

Several years ago, when I worked for the local school district, our

superintendent left Topeka to go to the Big D. Before he left, one of the

school board members gave him a list of " How to talk Texan. " I have it around

here somewhere, and if I find it, I'll pass it along. It was cute -and I

remember " Rat Cheer " was one of them.

My grandson's pet peave is someone saying warsh and arn instead of wash and

iron. Our local university is Washburn University, and probably half the people

say Warshbun, which also drives him nuts. Sometimes I do it just to tease him.

I tell him I've got to do the warshing and arning.

June C.

>

> Subject: Re: Accents, no worries OT

> To: LBDcaregivers

> Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008, 6:02 PM

> The Dallas morning news today had a story about old words.

> This sort of fits in with the

> accents and I thought yo might enjoy it. The link is below

> and then below that is the text.

> For those that don't know " Rat cheer " means

> right here.

> (Page at:

>

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sblow/storie\

s/

> 080708dnmetblow.37bdfca.html)

>

>

> =======================================================

> ===============

>

> I swanee, readers had favorite old words, too; much obliged

> 08:29 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 6, 2008

>

>

>

>

> We're all accustomed to plants, animals and historic

> places being put on the endangered

> list.

>

> So why not words?

>

> I got a big reaction to my column Saturday on fading words

> and phrases. That tells me

> that many of you are ready to take a stand for " Land

> o' Goshen " and " cattywampus. "

>

> If we can save the snail darter, why not " sakes

> alive " ?

>

> My inbox was swamped with words and expressions that

> people want saved -- things

> like " yonder, " " boy hidy, "

> " bodacious, " " gumption, "

> " tump " and the courtly " much obliged. "

>

> It was good to hear that some people have already started

> the preservation effort.

>

> Marc Wichman teaches at Richland College, and he's

> doing his part to save " rat cheer. "

>

> When a big test is coming up, he always writes on the

> classroom board the time and

> location. Where? " Rat cheer. "

>

> " Of course I have to explain it to them, " Marc

> says.

>

> White works in one of the big downtown law firms,

> but even in that highfalutin

> setting she's preserving one of my favorites -- the

> poetic " of a mornin' " and " of an

> evenin'. "

>

> While living in Alpine a few years ago, learned the

> phrase from gifted talker Bill

> Burton. " He just passed away last year, and I think of

> him every time I use it, " she says.

>

> " People seem taken aback when I use it and chuckle,

> but no one ever asks me why. I think

> it is a charming phrase. "

>

> Retired English professor Tommy Boley doesn't go to

> the movies. He goes to " the picture

> show. "

>

> " I like to see the response it gets, " he says.

> " With older folk, I get a chuckle. With anyone

> under 40, I get a question: 'Go WHERE?' "

>

> Dinah Bleau raised an excellent question: How do you spell

> " floocy " ?

>

> Just as I did, Dinah grew up hearing her mother talk about

> a " very floocy dress " or a

> " floocy party. " It meant elegant or upscale.

>

> But neither Dinah nor I can find any trace of the word in

> dictionaries or online. And that's

> using a variety of spellings -- flucy, floocie, fleucy ...

> .

>

> What are we missing, word preservationists?

>

> We need to save " floocy. " And we're not

> talking about " floozy, " which is something

> completely different.

>

> A reader in Lake Highlands worries that we're losing

> some fine old verbs for the ways

> people move about -- " sashay, "

> " traipse " and " mosey, " for instance.

>

> Back when people traipsed, seems like it was always

> " all over tarnation " or " all over

> Timbuktu. "

>

> I suspect Yankee infiltrators are responsible for

> supplanting those fine phrases with the

> unseemly " East Jesus. "

>

> Speaking of seemly, I was reminded of a lot of great old

> exclamations -- words so much

> better than the vulgarities that replaced them.

>

> Make the world a little nicer (and lower your blood

> pressure) by trading your favorite

> profanity for one of these:

>

> " Great day in the morning! "

>

> " For cryin' out loud! "

>

> " Lawzee me! "

>

> " I'll swan! "

>

> " Dadgummit! "

>

> " My lands! "

>

> " Good night, nurse! "

>

> Of course, I recognize that some extreme situations may

> exceed the load limits of these

> words.

>

> As one reader noted: " My sweet little Southern

> Baptist mother-in-law used to say, 'Well, I

> swanee!' because heaven knows she would never swear ...

> until the day her daughter's dog

> urinated into a box fan!

>

> " We laughed ourselves hoarse! "

>

>

>

>

> ------------------------------------

>

> Welcome to LBDcaregivers.

>

>