Heard on The Judges

[Wilson Gray]

Hi, Dave! Glad to see that you're still around. Thanks for your
comment. Needless to say, I agree that the kid and the kid didn't grow
up together.

Ah, there's really no need to be so specific about DOB. Sen. Specter
of PA was on the Daily Show, the other night and, for some reason, Jon
asked him his age. Specter's reply was approximately as follows:

"The other day, while I was looking at my birth certificate, I decided
that something so trivial that had happened so long ago was no longer
worthy of mention."

He shoots! He scores!

Yes, I admit that, when I was but a mere stripling of your age, I
enjoyed letting people know that I was an adult. I had such a baby
face that I was still being carded at the age of 36. As has often been
said, "Those were the good old days!" And, as has been said just as
often, "Those days are gone forever."

-Wilson



On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 8:13 PM, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
>  Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>
>  > Judge:
>
>  > "What were you-all doing?"
>
>  > Twelve-year-old black male speaker:
>
>  > "_We-all_ was playin' an' havin' fun."
>
>  > FWIW, this is the only time that I've had the impression that a
>  > speaker has said "we-all" or "they-all" and not been just joking. It's
>  > unfortunate that the speaker is only a child replying to an authority
>  > figure, since there are many ways to explain this away. E.g.,
>  > automatic response of "we-all" to judge's "you-all"; the speaker
>  > intended to say, "We were (all) ...," but, being in intimidating
>  > circumstances, slipped up; "an' so fo'th ('n' so own)," as we say in
>  > East Texas BE.
>
>  I don't use they-all, but i certainly do use we-all (though only after
>  i've been constantly hanging out with family and friends i grew up with
>  for several days). It's an exclusive we--i.e., to me, the 12yo's
>  response *must* mean that he wasn't hanging out with the judge.
>
>  For reference, i'm a white male speaker born in Southern Maryland 1970,
>  lived there until i left for college at 16.
>
>  --
>  David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org