feminine name: "Stuart"

[Wilson Gray]

Back in the '70's, a then-roommate of mine had a girlfriend named Mary
Stuart [Surname], who was called "Stuart."
I also had an upstairs neighbor named Mary Mason [Surname] who called
herself "Mason." Mason was a legend in her own time in our apartment because
she would shamelessly come knocking on our door to "borrow" a few squares of
toilet paper, when she needed to drop a deuce. True, the nearest Star Market
was lost in the
downhill-cross-the-railroad-tracks-recross-the-railroad-then-back-uphill
distance in Cambridge (we lived in Somerville) and who wants to be bothered
with that hassle? So, really, one has to admire her 'nadsy practicality,
under the circumstances. But, somehow, it was so, well, *unladylike*! " 'Pon
my word!" as my mother would say.

Speaking of cheers, Stuart had gone to Norfolk (VA) High School and claimed
that her school had a cheer that went,

We don't drink!
We don't smoke!
NOR-FOLK!

I've since met other Norfolkers who have assured me that Stuart wasn't just
pulling our Northern legs. There really is such a cheer.

-Wilson

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 10:07 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      feminine name: "Stuart"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> One of Larry King's guests tonight was named Stuart Brazell.
>
> She's pretty popular on the Web:
>
> http://www.pochepictures.com/stuartinterview.html
>
> She told Larry that "Stuart" was her middle name, but she's been using it
> as
> her everyday forename since she was little.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> Platypus"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
–––
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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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