From: dbushong@wang.com (Dave Bushong)
Subject: Re: California is NOT representative of the US as a whole
Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA, USA
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 21:12:47 GMT
Keywords: language

st1ns@elroy.uh.edu (Ault, Russell W.) writes:

>In article <i3558.725901920@newsie>, i3558@newsie.dc.dk (Soren Michael Roug) writes...
>>I seems to me that this discussion is mostly, if not completely carried
>>out by americans. My advice to you is that if you want to improve your
>>english language then learn the King's english, not those barbarian dialects
>>the yanks choose to utter. It is my understanding that the yanks find a
>>properly spoken UK accent "cute". Well, I won't call myself an expert, but
>>I have been to USA several times, and some of those wordings one get to
>>hear notably in California make my toes curl. And behold; In some restaurants
>>they don't give people utensils to eat with.
>>-- 

>Only a Californian would call California a part of the civilised world.  The 
>rest of us know that not everything "edible" is palatable, and that inventing 
>a new (and illogical) usage for an existing word or phrase (or an equally 
>illogical construction for an existing usage) is neither a profitable activity
>nor one which is likely to increase the degree to which one is making himself
>understood.  I dread the prospect of having to visit California.  For all 
>their slurred and slang-infested modes of speech, I prefer talking to someone
>from southern Louisiana than a vacuocephalic Californian.  (I sometimes wonder,
>though, if that designation is not redundant?)

>The worst part of the situation is that the disease (Californitis?) seems to
>be spreading.  It has even shown up in such isolated places as Cut & Shoot, 
>Texas (a real place, just north of Houston), much to the dismay of many.  If
>it continues, I may have to establish a new detoxification program to deal
>with the afflicted, something along the lines of a Californiacs Anonymous,
>with classes in Getting On With It, Differentiating Between Gratuitous
>Criticism and Actual Insult, and Eating Without Analysis.  I welcome any
>suggestions for additional items to add to the curriculum, and there is 
>some urgency involved since there is a small danger that I may have to move
>to California this year.  Fortunately, I've already been immunized.  And
>even more important, I have discovered that there are still enclaves of the
>unafflicted even in the L.A. basin, although they often adopt the outward
>appearance of the multitudes as protective coloration.  

>Sadly, I doubt that I will be able to pass as a Californian myself at any
>time in the near future.  I refuse to wear clothes that do not fit properly,
>I don't wear footwear that is designed to be used without socks, I loathe
>beaches, I keep my skin untanned and my hair unbleached, and my voice is 
>at least two octaves too low.  

>I guess I'll just have to get my groceries in Nevada.

I think the subject line was misspelled and probably
spoked with an Italian accent.

Dave

(born in San Diego, CA, but mostly normal anyway)



-- 
Dave Bushong, Wang Laboratories, Inc.   Amateur Radio Callsign KZ1O
Project Leader, OCR products            kz1o@n0ary.#noca.ca.na
Internet: dbushong@wang.com