8:33 am November 22, 2012, by Jay

Downtown Atlanta, as seen in a photo taken Wednesday by a daughter returning home for the holidays.
– Jay Bookman
An Atlanta blog with a little bit of opinion about a whole lot of things
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573 comments Add your comment
paulo977
November 23rd, 2012
3:26 pm
US in UK and josef…….
TIME OUT !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM0AGY1h_44&feature=fvwrel
Georgia
November 23rd, 2012
3:37 pm
I’ve been reading glowing reviews of Spielberg’s Lincoln. Poor Speilberg. Someone he trusted leaked the tone, the look, and the sound of his movie and an enemy made Vampire Lincoln, which made millions and millions. I dont respect my fellow movie goers one iota. Readers: wanna make money? Tweet the word vampire and sell people your links. It’s really that simple. Poor Speilberg. Lincoln? what could possibly go wrong?
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
3:59 pm
Why do 24/7 convenience stores have locks on the doors?
Or the Waffle House.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:11 pm
And the classic one…why are directions on the drive through teller in braille?
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
4:14 pm
“And the classic one…why are directions on the drive through teller in braille?”
Those kinds of conundrums are fun…but MY favorites are things like: why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:17 pm
“Lincoln Film Is Propaganda”
–SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS
http://sonsofconfederateveterans.blogspot.com/2012/11/lincoln-film-is-propaganda.html
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:19 pm
DOGGONE
Teaching English to non Speakers has it’s moments, too…
Is there a difference whether the house burns up or the house burns down?
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
4:21 pm
“Lincoln Film Is Propaganda”
–SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
4:26 pm
“Teaching English to non Speakers has it’s moments, too”
Yeah, I bet. I had an online conversation with someone once, who couldn’t understand why English was so hard to learn. So I told him to just contemplate the pronunciations of these words:
rough, cough, through, plough, thought, dough, enough, brought
I thnk he started to get the idea!
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
4:27 pm
You really have to appreciate the business model of local news stations who send “reporters” from the Live At 5 News Action Eyewitness Doppler Radar We Care Action Action Team down to the big box stores to hype the run-up to the Black Friday sales. Add to that the related stories (“Ten Black Friday deals you don’t want to miss out on!”… “The hottest items this Christmas and why you may not be able to get any of them making you a failure as a parent!” …. “BUY STUFF! CONSUME, LITTLE PIGGIES, MORE MORE, CONSUME!!!“) and then the same local news program can spend all day on Black Friday running poorly-shot cell phone footage of shoppers gone apesh*t with crap-lust, which allows the Most Trusted Action News-Anchors In The Tri-State Area to put on their serious concerned-faces while asking: “…tsk-tsk-tsk, what have we become?“… because They Care.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:34 pm
DOGGONE
Yeah. And what at first looks so simple to them. Let’s face it, the English verb really only has two tenses, past and present. And then you introduce the modal auxiliaries…they go mad!
You might not should have ought to have been going to be fixing to do that…
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
4:37 pm
“You might not should have ought to have been going to be fixing to do that…”
And then on top of that, there are local variations on the same word. Everyone around here is familiar with ya’all. How many have even hard youins or yins?
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:42 pm
Doggone
If the sentence that had had had had had had the meaning would have been quite different.
Ah, the importance of punctuation!
There’s a great Spanish tale called “The Importance of Punctuation.” A swain is courting three sisters. Their papa orders him to make his intentions known. So he sends a letter, without punctuation, and tells them to punctuate it and they’ll know. Each of the three punctuates it in such a way that it’s clear its she and not her sisters. Papa demands that the gentleman caller clear the matter up. He does. With his punctuation it’s none of the three…
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:46 pm
Doggone
I use the ‘uns” (which I sometimes pronounce ins all the time. It is, of course, “ones,” and, yes, I have been known to use y’all-uns’s…as in “that’s y’all-uns’s problem…” That problem which belongs to two or more of you as individuals…!
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
4:47 pm
Josef – yep, and there’s the one about the Czarina Maria Fyodorovna who was supposed to have save a man’s life by moving a comma in a warrant issued by her husband Alexander III, which exiled a criminal to imprisonment and death in Siberia.
The warrant said: “Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia.”
And she changed it to: “Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.” and the criminal was set free.
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
4:51 pm
“I use the ‘uns”
I don’t think I’ve every used that one. Yins is what I grew up saying for the plural “you”. Youins gets used the further away from Harrisburg you get, until you start getting closer to New Jersey, where if morphs to something closer to youse or to New York where it’s more like youze.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
4:56 pm
K’CHAK
I thought you’d like that one!
DOGGONE
And then there’s the one from the Decembrists Revolution. The soldiers in Saint Petersburg were said to chant “Constantine and Constitution!” Many of them were said to believe that “Constitution” (Russian konstitutsiya) was Constantine’s wife.
indigo
November 23rd, 2012
4:59 pm
Doggone/GA – 2:28
That is exactly the kind of logic I would expect from a homeschooled boy like you.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
5:03 pm
…from a homeschooled boy like you.
You’re so far off the mark, that you’re knocking down pins 3 lanes over, sport.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:04 pm
Doggone…
I always get urked when someone parodying the Southern dialects uses the grammar wrong. Things like using be with the third person in a situation where no Southern speaker would ever do it (it’s the subjunctive, dammit, and go check Shakespeare and the King James version of the Bible to learn how!
) and misuse of what’s called the “to be coppola” It’s an African thing and found in a number of other languages as well (Russian, Hungarian and Hebrew being examples). And don’t get me started on pronunciation,. Bred and bread are NOT pronounced the same, the first has no “drawl,” the second does…that’s why we write it with two vowels, dad gum it…
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:05 pm
K’CHAK
INCOMING!
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:07 pm
Josef – talking about accents. I heard an interview with Ken Burns about his series about the Prohibition. He was talking about the actress who did the voice for Carrie Nation. The actress said she was born in Kentucky, but spent a great part of her life in Kansas. So did Ken Burns want a Kentucky accent, a Kansas accent…or some combination of both. Which is why SHE makes money as a voiceover actress and I don’t!
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:09 pm
“You’re so far off the mark, that you’re knocking down pins 3 lanes over, sport.”
Yeah, he seems to be laboring under the idea that I care about his opinion of me.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:12 pm
Another of my favorites is from the original treaty with Panama setting up the Canal Zone. The English treaty says that the United States shall have jurisdiction over the territory “as if it were sovereign (over it)” The Spanish treaty says “como si fueron sobiernos…” which makes it clear that the US is NOT sovereign (over it)… territorially speaking.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:15 pm
Doggone
One of my “side jobs” is working with actors, actresses and voice over people on their Southern accents relative to the location where the action takes place…it’s lots of fun, but can be frustrating when you get somebody who’s wedded to the “generic” Southern accent…oy!
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:20 pm
“Another of my favorites is from the original treaty with Panama setting up the Canal Zone”
That one I had not heard about!
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:21 pm
Josef – have you seen “The Blind Side”? I watched it the other day and I thought, on the whole that Sandra Bullock didn’t do too bad with her accent. It was just enough to hear it, but not exagerated.
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
5:24 pm
The English language is an example of develpment through evolution, with an absense of intelligent design.
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:27 pm
“The English language is an example of develpment through evolution, with an absense of intelligent design”
Actually, it’s more of a celebration of the polyglot nature of both the English and Americans. Being a true “living” language it borrows widely from other languages.
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
5:28 pm
Don’t you all be making fun of southern accents, you all hear now. I will be a watching.
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
5:29 pm
Doggone – don’t forget the French, Germans and Spanish.
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
5:30 pm
Or the American Indians.
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:34 pm
“Doggone – don’t forget the French, Germans and Spanish”
I didn’t. That’s what I meant about borrowing from other languages. And you can’t limit it to just them, England has a pretty strong Scandinavian influence. And the American version of English has borrowed from damn near every language and dialect from around the world.
Brosephus™
November 23rd, 2012
5:36 pm
josef @ 4:17
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:39 pm
DOGGONE
That is the glorious beauty of the Mother English…we have the largest vocabulary of any language and words incorporated from every corner of the Blue Planet..and when we come across something new, we have the freedom to come up with a word for it…and I love how different dialects will relate to that new thing in their creation of a word for it…
And, no, I haven’t seen the Blind Side, but I have always admired Bullock for the way she uses her native dialect…and Cissy Spacek is my cultural and linguistic heroine…any time that location of her character is not specified and/or germane, she uses her native North Texas accent and speech patterns. She had to put up a fight for that when she was doing her role in “Missing.” The director, a Greek, backed her…and it was, to me, one of the most effective elements and, while never made a point of, she and Jack Lemmon were able to use to advance the subtleties of the conflict between them…
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:45 pm
OSCAR
I’ve been doing some digging around on the effect of the Indian languages in the development of the various Southern dialects as well as that of the various African languages..
DOGGONE
That Scandanavian influence, it accounts for the strong distinctions between the English of Yorkshire and London and Southern England. It has been so strong in Scotland that what we generally think of as a dialect has been classified as a language, Lalands…
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:46 pm
“And, no, I haven’t seen the Blind Side, but I have always admired Bullock for the way she uses her native dialect”
I don’t even know what her native dialect is. It’s a great story, not so much a great movie…but it’s pleasant and watchable…which is sometimes easier to live with than greatness is.
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:48 pm
“I’ve been doing some digging around on the effect of the Indian languages in the development of the various Southern dialects as well as that of the various African languages”
and don’t leave out Yorkshire. There is, to my ear, a distinct resemblence betwee the Yorkshire accent and the accent I hear around here – near the mountains.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
5:52 pm
DOGGONE
Bullock was an army brat. Her father was from Birmingham and, in addition to his Army career, was a voice coach. Her mother was an opera singer from Germany.
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
5:54 pm
“Her father was from Birmingham and, in addition to his Army career, was a voice coach”
Ahhh…that probably explains her ease with the accent in the movie.
josef
November 23rd, 2012
6:00 pm
DOGGONE
That Yorkshire connection would be correct, but it is more the Scots and Scots Irish English immigration patterns of the Southern Appalachians…down on the Coast, there’s more of the London-Southern (England) influence…in the case of the Appalachian there has been a strong influence from Cherokee, in the case of the coastal, the influence has been more African. The middle South has had influence from the Creek, Choctaw-Chickasaw and the Niger Basin dialects. Once you get over to the lower Mississippi Valley, the influences are French, both the Parisian and the Breton, along with the Choctaw-Chickasaw and Congolese. You can really get a “feel” from this latter in watching “Swamp People” and listening to the Houma…
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
6:19 pm
Folks been eatin’ too much turkey. Got an overdose of that tryptophan.
Fruit will off set it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5c5870ztSg
josef
November 23rd, 2012
6:28 pm
Hey, moonbat…looks like Big Daddy has left us on our own this p.m. in search an FBN theme…maybe fruit songs…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2z3xJeqeY
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
6:28 pm
AndcCool pic,Jay.
It amazes me when coming in on a night flight how large the ATL has grown.
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
6:34 pm
Josep – When I was in college, a friend on mine from Savannah used to argue over how to pronounce Habersham. Never did get him straightened out on that.
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
6:40 pm
that was cool josef.
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
6:41 pm
just a twist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5MBHO2oEfM
TaxPayer
November 23rd, 2012
6:48 pm
Ain’t y’all got nothin’ better to do on Black Friday.
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
6:49 pm
“Josep – When I was in college, a friend on mine from Savannah used to argue over how to pronounce Habersham. Never did get him straightened out on that”
I felt really sorry for a news reporter that I heard not too long after moving to GA. There was some kind of disaster in Pittsburgh and she had a pretty strong Southern accent of the kind found around Macon. She really should have made sure she had some idea of how to pronounce Monogahela (River) before she tried to do it on air!
josef
November 23rd, 2012
6:50 pm
moonbat
Doctor, is there nothing I can take to relieve this bellyache…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbgv8PkO9eo
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
6:53 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKQaSZXEK2s
Corbin Sharpe. I think, therefore I am...I think
November 23rd, 2012
6:53 pm
No small fruit, no lemon twist…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9Lsd6uh-o&feature=related
Corbin Sharpe. I think, therefore I am...I think
November 23rd, 2012
6:55 pm
Ok, ok…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrmBWtOWYsA
josef
November 23rd, 2012
6:55 pm
DOGGONE
In Mississippi we have fun with listening to the mangles of Pascagoula…but nothing quite tops the newcomers to Nawlins with Tchoupitoulas Street!
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
6:58 pm
nice, josef
who could not like strawberry?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTXyoPVOUso
St Simons - he-ne-ha BOOTAKOOK 2014
November 23rd, 2012
6:59 pm
how do you pronounce Gloucester?
the people down here say ‘gloss-stah’
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:00 pm
CORBIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3j9jpBez8g
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:05 pm
some citrus for you…listen while I play, my green tangerine…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxm19NBAcfc
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
7:06 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZOlDsHCL00
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
7:06 pm
“nothing quite tops the newcomers to Nawlins with Tchoupitoulas Street!”
I bet!
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:06 pm
He ne ha…
Since you’re here…a quick one for you, my great niece, age 10 from Oklahoma has begun her Chahta language and culture studies…
Doggone/GA
November 23rd, 2012
7:07 pm
“the people down here say ‘gloss-stah’”
Like Worcester – which is pronounced Wooster. But my favorite is Chalmondolay – pronounced Chumly!
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:08 pm
moonbat
Mo’ strawberries…little nekkid women without any shoes…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYLz63csS0&feature=related
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:10 pm
DOGGONE, He ne ha…
And where does our word “bedlam” come from? Pronunciation of St. Mary of Bethlehem..site of the British nutward…
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
7:14 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5njDmUMhfa0
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:19 pm
Doggone
The Cajun surname Schexnayder
(Chek-shnai-der..) Some spell it Tschexsnayder…
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
7:23 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLc_4eg4sAk&feature=fvst
I wanted to post “Georgia Peaches”
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:38 pm
okay, one for you jazz aficionados…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ASTMFN-h4
josef
November 23rd, 2012
7:42 pm
and how could we possible forget this fruit song…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mix3gmzPa0
Corbin Sharpe. I think, therefore I am...I think
November 23rd, 2012
7:48 pm
…and then, for dessert…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Ow_78bgNk
wet wiccan
November 23rd, 2012
8:03 pm
ain’t that a peach?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aYrDx-QKmg
josef
November 23rd, 2012
8:07 pm
and one fruit paying homage to another fruit…what else could it be…ALL the fruits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV9j28C7OGE
Fred ™
November 23rd, 2012
8:17 pm
josef (@8:07): And here I was expecting this song…….. (just a quick drive by lol).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_hSJ0GipI
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
8:21 pm
Are Republicans beginning to throw Norquist under the bus?
Nothing riles up the tea party chattering class like a broken pledge against raising taxes.
Just ask Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a veteran Georgia Republican who this week turned his back on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed years ago as a rite of passage in right-wing politics.
[...]
“I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” said Chambliss, who faces re-election for a third Senate term in 2014.
Referring to Norquist, who has vowed to oppose candidates who break the pledge, Chambliss said that “if we do it his way, then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.”
“Saxby Chambliss wrote a commitment to the voters of Georgia. He got elected and re-elected making that commitment,” Norquist said. “He’s never promised me anything.”
[...]
If the senator wants to “change his mind and become a tax increaser,” Norquist said, “he needs to have that conversation with the people of Georgia.”
And we will gladly have that conversation without the input of that punk-ass Norquist.
wet wiccan
November 23rd, 2012
8:22 pm
somehow the video just doesn’t go with the song, but I like the song anyway…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9qpCb281Y4&feature=fvwrel
Uncle Stonewall
November 23rd, 2012
8:28 pm
Jay,
An even better picture would be of YOU leaving Atlanta permanently with a picture of a plane TAKING OFF the Hartsfield runway headed for somewhere in the Middle East.
wet wiccan
November 23rd, 2012
8:30 pm
this one is for betty, cause I want to make her laugh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_l4cPDq4Rg
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
8:33 pm
Not sure if it is fruit, but honeysuckle is close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_3CvrKWQe0
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
8:34 pm
wiccan, you’re good…
wet wiccan
November 23rd, 2012
8:40 pm
aw shucks, betty (smile)
getalife
November 23rd, 2012
8:41 pm
Make me a ham sammich.
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
8:50 pm
getalife,
make me turkey pot pie!
godless heathen - Support Small Business Saturday
November 23rd, 2012
9:19 pm
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and is working off the cals.
On T-day AM I was driving up to the farm and listening to Outlaw Country on Sirrius XM (That’s the station that Peyton Manning tunes to in the Buick commercial) and heard a new Thanksgiving Song. Not many Thanksgiving songs that aren’t parodies of some kind, but this one was really great and brought a tear to the heathen’s eye. It’s called “I’m Going Home for Thanksgiving” by Raelyn Nelson (that’s Willies granddaughter.) Unfortunately, I can’t find an on-line link to it anywhere. Matbe by next Thanksgiving it will be on YouTube for us.
getalife
November 23rd, 2012
9:24 pm
moonbat,
“Pie, pie, me oh my,
Nothing tastes better, wet, salty and dry,
all at once – oh, well it’s pie.
Apple and pumpkin and mince and black bottom,
I’ll come to your place every day if you’ve got ‘em.
Pie, me oh my, I love piiiiieeeeeee”
http://archshrk.com/pie-song-from-michael
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
9:37 pm
Put your trees up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHh7pW29Fy8
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
9:56 pm
Godless – I couldn’t find it either, but figure this is close enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thXpcG7lWJo&feature=related
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
10:06 pm
nothing quite tops the newcomers to Nawlins with Tchoupitoulas Street!
___
Somehow “There is a house in Nawlins” just would not sound the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU3KELkd-zY
RW-(the original)
November 23rd, 2012
10:07 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkPlxZ7azJ4
Just in case the headline was a theme hint for the FNMT
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
10:08 pm
Another version. Catch the intro by JFK.
Never trust a smiling pol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpWEv9Q0XQ4&feature=related
RW-(the original)
November 23rd, 2012
10:18 pm
Why do 24/7 convenience stores have locks on the doors?
One reason is to trap shoplifters in the building while a call goes out to the local authorities. It’s pretty cool if you’ve never seen the way the security cameras interact with the lock system.
Another would be for the clerk to use the facilities, but I’ll stipulate that makes 24/7 false advertising.
RW-(the original)
November 23rd, 2012
10:22 pm
And a more up to date version of the would be theme…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE
…which has been hijacked by far too many advertisers
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
10:22 pm
Speaking of Thanksgiving – habng in their it will be over soon.
In-laws are rodents in human guise,
They eat up my cakes and all of my pies,
Over hill and valleys, and roads and ruts,
They come for diner, I hate their guts.
—–Author unknown
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
10:24 pm
What’s up RW?
Been to Sunrise Cove?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLk75fFXqH4
RW-(the original)
November 23rd, 2012
10:31 pm
Been to Sunrise Cove?
Hiya mb! Is there still any water up there? I’m a little south of Sunrise and we’re transitioning from lake to bog. If this keeps up I’m moving back down to Tampa where they know how to keep a body of water full.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
10:33 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CStJpfTlws
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
10:37 pm
Someday soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIgnHPqp0Dk&feature=related
Oscar
November 23rd, 2012
10:45 pm
Constant Sorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08e9k-c91E8&NR=1
Kamchak's gerbil
November 23rd, 2012
10:47 pm
Its stinky up in here.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
November 23rd, 2012
10:49 pm
Tick…tick…tick….
Just sayin’.
moonbat betty
November 23rd, 2012
10:50 pm
Mangoes, everywhere!
hat tip/ wiccan, nice.