Terry Southern (was "The nefarious 'they'")

[Jonathan Lighter]

Here's a passage worth memorizing.  It pertains to a number of social and sociolinguistic issues.

>From "Twirling at Ole Miss," by Terry Southern (Esquire, Feb.1963) :

[Southern, raised in rural Texas, fears that his now refined and cosmopolitan speech might alienate Mississippians during a journalistic visit to Ole Miss.]

"Would reverting to the Texas twang and callowness of my youth suffice to see me through ?

"Arriving in Oxford then, on a hot midday in July,...I stepped off in front of the old Colonial Hotel and meandered across the sleepy square toward the only sign of life at hand--the proverbial row of shirt-sleeved men sitting on benches in front of the county courthouse, a sort of permanent jury.

" 'Howdy,' I say, striking an easy stance, smiling friendly-like, ' whar the school ? '

"The nearest regard me in narrow surmise : they are quick to spot the stranger here, but a bit slow to cotton.  One turns to another.

" 'What's that he say, Ed ?'

"Big Ed shifts his wad, sluices a long spurt of juice into the dust, gazes at it reflectively before fixing me again with gun-blue-cold eyes.

" 'Reckon you mean, " Whar the school *at* ?" , don't you, *stranger* ? ' "

JL





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