beaner

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:33 PM -0400 6/12/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On 6/11/07, Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at purdue.edu> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>>Subject:      Re: beaner
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Quoting Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>:
>>>
>>>  Also, FWIW, Carlos Mencia, the Chicano comedian, uses "beaner" as his
>>>  usual term for both "Mexican-American" and "Mexican," as does the
>>>  legendary Cheech Marin....
>>>
>>
>>Mencia's argument for the term (if I can remember his bit
>>correctly) is that he
>>needs a word that covers Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South
>>American (perhaps
>>without regard for language too) and the rest. So he settles on
>>"beaner" because
>>I guess we all eat beans.
>
>Well, we all do. That certainly can't be denied. Indeed, I was able to
>add another variety of bean to my personal list when I discovered
>that, here in the Northeast, black-eyed peas are called "black-eyed
>beans." ;-)

Hey, not by all of us nor'easterners.  I've lived here for 55 or so
years and have never encountered "black-eyed beans", only "black-eyed
peas".  Unfortunately my body seems to be convinced they're beans.
Maybe just as well--I can always ward off the relevant symptoms by
taking Beano, which is easier to find than Pea-o.

LH, who occasionally is given to ponder on the difference between
"ham hocks" and "(smoked) pork hocks" for boiling up with those
black-eyed whatevers.

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