On _hoosier_ as an insult, etc.

[Herb Stahlke]

Wilson,

I was in the midst of typing the last message when my internet
connection dropped.  Down with Comcast!  So I'll try to finish it
before I get another service drop.

On the two meanings of "hoosier," you may be making a distinction
without a difference.   And I say that as an accidental Hoosier.   In
the 1989 Sean Penn/Robert De Niro film "We're no Angels," the two are
escaped convicts approaching a small town on the Canadian border
somewhere in the Northwest, I think.  They're going to impersonate
priests and hide out in a monastery.  Penn doesn't think it'll work
and says to De Niro, "They'll think we're hoosiers."  That meaning
clearly goes beyond St. Louis and its county--at least to Hollywood.

Herb

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      On _hoosier_ as an insult, etc.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Like residents of every other city, St. Louisans have quirks that must
> be explained to outsiders: their fondness for Provel cheese [W:pedia:
> "_Provel_ is a white, processed cheese that is popular in Saint Louis,
> Missouri."], for one, or their _use of the word "hoosier" to mean
> anybody [white] with three teeth, a pickup, and a mullet, instead of a
> person from Indiana_. But the habit that seems to perplex newcomers
> the most is the eternal question, "So, where'd you go to high school?"
>
> http://goo.gl/tYIZM
>
> Whenever I meet someone else from Saint Louis, I *still* ask this
> question, despite my not having even been to Saint Louis since 1962.
> Onne reason is that the answer lets me know whether the person is from
> the City of Saint Louis or from somewhere else in the greater Saint
> Louis metropolitan area. Ask a Brooklynite where he's from and he may
> answer, "New York City." Ask Jonathan Franzen where he's from and he
> *may* answer, "Saint Louis." But, ask where he went to high school,
> and he *has to* answer, "Webster Groves." Now, I know that he's really
> from Saint Louis *County* and not from Saint Louis sensu stricto by
> any measure. City is city and county is county and, in this case, the
> twain don't meet.
>
> As for "hoosier," I've heard it used in the relevant sense by people
> from as far away as Granite City, IL, and Cairo, IL, so it's an areal
> phenomenon. in the local BE, it's pronounced [hu:dZI]. as a
> consequence of which, no connection was (is?) made between "hoojie"
> and "hoosier." (If *I* didn't make the connection, then it's extremely
> unlikely that any other black St. Louisan made (makes?} the
> connection. Fo' real, y'all.;-) It's not at all obvious to the naive
> speaker that a difference like sE [ruZ] v. BE [rudZ] "rouge" has
> anything to do with anything.)
> --
> -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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