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Saturday, 07 March 2009

  • Currently
    Repo! The Genetic Opera
    By Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton
    see related

    So Yunz Know What I'm Talking About

    I thought this was quite interesting and explains to the people here in Columbus why I talk the way I do, or have an "accent", which I never thought I had til I moved to Athens and Columbus. So enjoy (and you Wellsvillians might get a smile out of this as well )
     
     
    Pittsburgh English n 'at for visitors and newcomers
    Tuesday, March 21, 2006
    By Peter Leo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    Yinzbonics

    For details on the fascinating subject of Pittsburgh English, we turn to Wikipedia.com, the online, somewhat reliable interactive encyclopedia:

    Pittsburgh is the linguistic center of a dialect region covering most of Western Pennsylvania as well as parts of northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio and a small area of western Maryland. The Pittsburgh dialect, often referred to as Pittsburghese (or Yinzbonics), contains substrates reflecting the ethnic heritage of the region: Scotch-Irish, German and Slavic. There are still vibrant ethnic communities in Pittsburgh, composed of both recent immigrants and third- or fourth-generation Americans, particularly in the South Side and Squirrel Hill, where it is not uncommon to hear people speaking Polish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian.

    With the advent of mass media, along with an influx of technology workers, localized vocabulary is becoming less common, though is still noticeable; use and even some innovation are found among young people who feel a strong sense of local pride. Regional features in speech are heavily class-marked; working class Pittsburghers use far more local features than the upper middle class.

    Clip 'n' save

    A language guide for visitors and newcomers:

    Babushka, bandana or head scarf; occasionally refers to an elderly woman or your grandmother. (I say this when I wrap the scarves around kid's heads, my mom used to say it alot).

    Buggy, shopping cart. (I just thought that was what they were called!)

    Chimbley, chimney. (My Pap Carman says this, the working class explains it)

    Chipped ham (pronounced "chipp'tam") or chipchopped ham, very thinly sliced ham for sandwiches. (I got a wierd look for asking for chipchopped ham in Westerville Kroger. LOL)

    Crick, creek. (Wanna go drinkin' down by the crick?)

    Cue-pons, coupons. (LOL how is it supposed to be pronounced?)

    Dahntahn, downtown.

    Dippy eggs, eggs not fully cooked, with the yolk runny.

    Guchies, underwear.(I've never heard them called this....)

    Gum band, a rubber band.

    Jag-off, vulgar, an extremely disagreeable person. (Again, I use this all the time. My dad probably tells Nate to "Quit jaggin' around" a few times a day)

    Jag around, to waste time; to mess with someone in a non-serious fashion.

    Jaggin yer wires, expression meaning "pulling your leg."

    Jagger bush, any shrub with thorns. (What else would you call it?)

    Jeetjet, phrase, "Did you eat yet?" (Often accompanied by "Nojoo?")

    Jumbo, bologna lunchmeat; sold at Isaly's as square jumbo.

    Kennywood's open, interj., said to men only; indicates that the guy's fly is open. (Kennywood amusement park is open only during the summer months.)(There's alot of Kennywood Pittsburgh traditions!)

    N 'at, contraction, "and that." Means, "along with some other stuff," as in, "Yinz wanna go dahn ta Isaly's 'n get sommadat square jumbo n'at?" (Do you all want to go down to Isaly's and get some of that square baloney and a few other things?)

    Neb, to investigate or take interest in things that are none of your business. (I use this term alot too!)

    Nebby, given to prying into the affairs of others; nosy.

    Nebs**t, vulgar, a person who habitually cannot mind his own business. (You can say Nebnose if you want to be polite)

    Nuh-uh, interj., no way. Opposite of yuh-huh. (You wanna go ta Kennywood today? Nuh-uh, Let's go ta Sandcastles!)

    Pop, a soft drink. (Coke also refers to any dark pop, btw)

    Redd up, intermediate step between tidying and cleaning. "Yinz better redd up this room." (Older people say this, like my grandparents and mom)

    Soda, refers strictly to only unflavored carbonated water. (Not the same as pop, e.g., Pepsi, Coke.)

    Slippy, slippery

    Stickies, Post-It notes.

    Stillers, the Steelers.(How bout dem Stillers?)

    Sweeper, a vacuum cleaner.(Again, I thought that's what it was called!)

    Terlet, the toilet itself or the name of the restroom. (Pap Carman and daddy again!)

    The tube or tubes, either the Fort Pitt or Liberty tunnels through Mount Washington.

    Yinz or yunz, second person plural pronoun. (It's losing some ground to you guys and yall.) (The big one. The one I get made fun of the most and the one that's hardest to break)

    Worsh, wash. (MOM!)

    Our word-saving grammar

    Verbs containing "to be" in standard English do not bother with it in Pittsburgh English. Thus, "the cat wants to be let in" corresponds to "the cat wants let in" in Pittsburghese, and "the car needs to be washed/the car needs washing" to "the car needs washed." This grammatical structure is from Scots dialect, which historically had major linguistic influence in the region. (This is also hard to break, so I've bascially given up. I pride in it, instead)

    The adverb "down" is frequently used in expressions with "to go;" Pittsburgh English: "I'm going down to the Benches" [the benches outside the Squirrel Hill post office, a popular hangout for teenagers] corresponds to standard English "I'm going to the Benches." (I get this alot too. If I'm going down somewhere, it don't matter if it's east, south, north, or west. I'm going down!)

    Web sites n 'at

    For more fun, check out english.cmu.edu/pittsburghspeech, (this is a good site!)a site for non-linguists created by Carnegie-Mellon University linguist Barbara Johnstone, and www.pittsburghese.com, a site mostly for laughs.

    First published on March 21, 2006 at 12:00 am
     
    There's so many more, as well. I think it's mostly changing "o" words to "aw" (mawm for mom) and dropping "ing" in words (I'm goin' dawhtawn), and using "fs" or "ts" where they don't go (although I don't do that so much,but older people do "I'm going to the baffroom" "Where's the batt-rees for the clicker?).  It's complicated, lol. Some other words that stand out to me, because I KNOW I've been made fun of:
     
    Canipshun - "She cried and had a canipshun fit right thar in the walmarts")
    Afgan - "Bring me my afgan, I'm cold"
    City Chicken - also known as pork-on-a-stick
    Clodhoppers - When you come home from work you take your clodhoppers off and put on some comfy shoes.
    Cucky - I think someone told me this was an italian term. "Don't eat crayons! Cucky, spit it out!"
    Doohickey - "Hand me that doohickey over there."
    Flip-flops - They're not sandles!
    Gian Igle - It's where you put your groceries in the buggy at
    Keller - "Do any of yunz want to keller? I'll get the krayns out!"
    Ungion - "I'll have a salad, no ungions"
     
     
    I'll say this too. We have a Pittsburgh Toliet in our basement, and just try to order a imp-n-arn at a bar around here.
    Thanks yunz, and ganite!
    Accently Yours,
    Jess

  • Feb 4th 2008 Ski Trip

    Monday, February 04, 2008 

    Current mood:  exhausted
    Category: Travel and Places

    And what a trip it was. First off, I will explain that I am the most uncoordinated person ever and have no athletic ability at all. So let me begin....

    We got there early Friday with it raining/snowing on and off. During one of the off periods, I noticed a sign for sleigh rides and squealed in joy, and sang a noticable Christmas song. So off we went, and it was very peaceful and nice. Except then the bus didn't pick us up from the stables for like an hour, so we complained and got free tubing passes. YAY!

    After that me and Doug ordered some time in the Good Hot Tub for just the two of us. Ooooo! Actually, we did alot of talking about random stuff, just like the good ol' days :)

    Then I got my party dress on (which was incredibly bitchin') and we went to the Bavarian Bar for some party time. The barista was a bitch and pissed Doug off, but after a few drinks he finally calmed down. There was an awesome 80's cover band that played which was great because I can get down to some 80's music. It took a little....a lot...of coaxing, but I finally convinced Doug not to be such a downer and get out on the dance floor. After all, his mom and Tony were all over the dance floor, and I'm not about to let some oldies show me up. They played FOOTLOOSE....and I was all on it. I think Doug actually ended up having a good time in the end.

    A good night's sleep and a hangover later, it was time to hit the slopes. My intentions were to watch and take pictures, but somehow I let them convince me to attempt skiing. I've tried snowboarding before, and I absoultely sucked at it, and Doug traumatized me last year by taking me up on the chair lift (I'm terrified by heights) and leaving me when my snowboard broke and I had to slide down the hill on my ass. Fun. So I tried skiing, and went up and down the baby hill to get the hang of it with Doug's mom instructing me. We took a "All Levels" class so that we could stick together for a lesson. There were about 8 people, so they split us up by ability by making us go down the hill so they could see where we stand. Well, I must have been pretty damn convincing for my first time, because they stuck me in the INTERMEDIATE class, and left Tony and Lisa in Beginners. They never left the baby hill. Meanwhile, my instructor tells us "Alright, we're going to get on the lift now". WHAT??? Well, I paid for the lesson, and didn't realize that Tony and Lisa were staying on the baby hill, so I went with it, despite feeling that barfy feeling in the pit of my stomach. We started up the hill, and the instructor was telling us stuff but I have no idea what she said because I was too focused on not crying because there's a whole lotta snow and death below me. I fall off the lift when we try to get off at the top, because of course, I've never had to get off a chair on skis before. Some guy rescues me, calling me a damsal in distress, yay.  Old lady Mary and 8yearold Lily are in my group, and they are waaaay better than I am. I fall about a thousand times, and the ski instructor basically has to help me all the way down the hill. I mean, I guess I kinda learned a little bit, but not enough to ever go up on a chairlift again. NO THANK YOU.

    After that we go to the hot tubs, but the only one open is Lame Hot Tub, which looks like a kiddie pool out inthe snow. There's no bubbles and hardly any jets, and it sucks, and my whole body still feels bruised and crappy.

    We wander around the hotel awhile which has all kinds of happening things going on, but the best is that I eat and eat and eat. MMmmmm, food.

    The next day we're lucky enough to get enough snow so that the snowmobiles are running. HOORAY! That was a lot of fun, but I found out driving one makes me a little paranoid, and besides, it's more fun to see all the scenery and take pictures. Doug's mom drives into a bush, which is one of those "thank god it wasn't me" moments.

    On the way down, we stop at Tubing, which is packed with people, so Doug and I only went up like four times before getting bored. Which is about the time I noticed my debit card was missing. I check in with the desk, and luckily a little girl found it in the snow. Hooray again! My panic settles, and I'm fine again.

    Then the loooong 6 hour drive to pick up the kids and then back to C-bus. Which is fine, because I took a lot of dramamine and it knocked me out for most of the ride.

    And now I'm back. Overall it was a great trip, even though initially I wasn't too thrilled about it. We are considering going back int he summer, when there's a bunch of cool outdoor activities that don't involve falling down a mountainside.

    Peace and Snowbunnies-

    Jess

     

  • July 19th - Cedar Point

    Saturday, July 19, 2008 

    Current mood:  exhausted
    Category: Travel and Places

    I wanted to write down about my trip to Cedar Point, because it was great, and I'm getting to the age where I start forgetting about things. LOL

    We left early Thursday morning with Jesse and Stacy, and the ride was good except for the rest stop, which was basically peeing in a hole in the ground with curious air coming out of it. Frightful. When we arrived we checked out the hotel. We stayed at Hotel Breakers, so we could walk 2 minutes to Cedar Point and stay on the beach. Like the excited little 25 year old kids that we are, we didn't waste much time running over to Cedar Point.

    We rode the Magnum XL200 first, which we thought would be a nice pansy ride to start the trip off with. Whoa, we were wrong about that! We looked at the line for the Top Thrill Dragster, then decided to wait and save it for later. On the first day we had rode pretty much all of the steel rollercoasters. In the middle of the day we stopped at the antique photo booth and had our picture taken, very cute. Doug thought it would be lame at first, but he soon saw that it was actually pretty fun. It's one for the mantel, lol. The lines for the rides were great, it was only like 15 minutes to get on the rollercoasters. The only one I didn't agree with was the Wicked Twister; I don't know why but I came off shaken and disturbed. My favorite was probably the Maverick. It was a long hot wait, but totally worth it. I think it was because it was new and I didn't know much about it, so I wasn't expecting the drops and acceleration. It was a powerful ride, I loved it! The lamest was the Disaster Transport, although being in the dark was kinda cool. We rode the MaxAir after that, AHH! I think I laughed the whole time, it was such a wierd feeling being circled up around in the air like that. Everyone else came off the ride cursing me, haha.   Oh yeah, and they got me back by riding the Sky Ride to the other side of the park, which I am terrified of. Doug said he couldn't understand how I could ride all those roller coaster but not that, but it's just the feeling of being slowly above everything, and I'm afraid of heights. It's complicated, lol.

    After a full day of riding and heat stroke, we headed back to the hotel. The boys went on a beer run and missed the fireworks, the beach, the hot tub, and all the fun stuff. Idiots. We spent a little time on the beach with them until being kicked off by a cop. It was nice though. We met a older couple in the hot tub who talked our heads off, but they were nice. They were roller coaster fanatics, and travel all around the world riding roller coasters. I want to actually check out the website they were talking about where you keep track off all the ones you've rode.

    The next morning, we got up early since we had tickets to get in an hour early. However, it didn't do any good since we still had to wait about 2 hours for the Top Thrill Dragster, our early morning coaster. It was amazing though, and to look at the coaster, I can't believe I actually did it! After that we caught up on the wooden coaters we hadn't rode yet and rode the Millenium Force, only this time we rode it front seat, hands up the whole time! I'd have to say that's one of the best coasters! The front seat just makes you feel like you're flying. The boys, however, did not make it with thier hands up, the wusses.  Then we headed over to Soak City for awhile, and did the swim-up bar, which made us feel like grown-ups, lol. We only rode two slides there, and bascially relaxed and cooled off in the pool for awhile. Then we went back to the park and had some lunch (MMMm, carney fries). We rode our favorites again (the Millenium for the 3rd time, this time the guy's had thier hands up! and the Maverick!) and rode some fun coasters as it got dark ( The Gemini is a blast in the dark!)  On the way out, we hit the Magnum one more time, which looked beautiful with all the lights in the park in the dark. That made it our first, and last ride of the day. We decided to drive home that night, and everytime I went to fall asleep in the car it felt like I was riding a coaster again!

    It was so much fun, one of the best vacays ever!

    Thrill-seekingly Yours,

    Jess

  • Deleting Myspace....

    I'm deleting myspace, but I have blogs on there that I want to keep, so I'm moving them over here, even though I don't use this that much either. Catch me on facebook or here!

    Saturday, August 02, 2008 


    Current mood:  loved
    Category: Life

    While browsing Blockbuster last night, we came across "Harold and Kumar: Escape From Gutanamo Bay". Excited, I grabbed it and said, "Let's get this! I've been wanting to see this!"

    Just then a group of two young guys and two girls walked past. One of the guys picked up the movie and asked if they could get it. The girls responded with disgusted faces, whines, and nooooooos. "Not a guy movie!"

    I was feeling a little un-feminine for the fact that I was holding the movie, when Doug says "And that's why I love you."  Plain and simple as that. Now, Doug's a loving guy, but he doesn't normally say things like that alot, which just make them all the more powerful when they are said.

    I just wanted to remind people to never be ashamed of who you are. Someone loves you that way. And you can be sure of that!

    Lovingly Yours,

    Jess

     

    PS: I laughed my ass off at the second installment of Harold and Kumar's adventures. So there!

     

Friday, 05 September 2008

  • Currently Reading
    Choke
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    see related

    Go Go Go

    I haven't posted anything in a super long time. I realized this when I looked back at my last post and it said me and Doug are moving to Heathermoor...Well we're on the move again! This time we're moving to a swanky 3 floor apartment in Little Turtle in Westerville. I'm excited, so excited! Packing has made me realize I have a lot of crap, and I need to downsize my life a little bit and become a ...gulp.... ADULT. Ewwww. We'll see how fast that happens.

    Basically everything else has been the same ol' same ol'. My baby brother just started college, AWW! He's playing football for the Seton Hill Griffins now instead of being a "Tahger from the Ville!" And, I moved up from teaching infants to teaching toddlers, hooray! It's quite rewarding, i love it.

    I wanted to end this in two quite funny quotes from children today:

    Tomorrow is the OSU/OhioU football game, so (since I live in Columbus) all my toddlers had on thier Buckeyes gear. I swear I searched for the one child at Compass whose parents went to OU, but alas, I found none, so I wore my Bobcats shirt that stated "There's only one OHIO, and YOU ain't it!" (I'm surprised I made it out alive). Anyway, we've been listening to the OSU marching band for a week now, so I brought in the Ohio University Marching 110 cd, so my kids could "Stand up and Cheer!" After they marched to one song, I shouted, "GO BOBCATS!". Seth stopped marching, laughed and said "Nooooo!"

    Towards the end of the day, a child ran past me and I got a whiff of something not so fresh. I said to him, "Uhoh Kaden, are you poopy?" ...."No" he states and continues to play with his car, and two seconds later he turns to me and asks, "Are YOU poopy?" Very seriously I stated that no, I poops on the potty, which made my coworker crack up laughing which just made Kaden think the whole situation was hilarious, which in turn made me have to laugh. So much for being the serious teacher! LOL

    Anyhoo, I'm off, I need dinner and it looks like the Dougster isn't getting up anytime soon, for he must find a virus blocker program, and only the best for my little computer nerd

    Bobcatsly Yours,

    Jess