'Mountain boomer' and Yellowhammer

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 4/28/01 8:42:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Hixmaddog at AOL.COM writes:

<< Doing an undergraduate paper on
 "shitepoke" 30 years ago, I was surpri-
 sed to discover that the term was long-
 established for the blue heron.  (I knew
 only my family's use in affectionate dis-
 paragement of a child). >>

When I was in high school in Louisville KY (1960-65) a classmate of mine used
the word "shitepoke" (my recollection is that he pronounced it "shikepoke")
to refer to people, and since nobody ever figured out what a shitepoke was,
the targets of his, uh, description never could figure out whether they were
being insulted or not.

Note that this was one individual's usage and I never heard it from anyone
else.

          - James A. Landau
            Systems Engineer
            FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
            Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA