early euphemism of the year candidate--"artificial calamari"

[Neal Whitman]

Great episode; I still need to play that segment for my sons.

Fred Armisen was co-hosting, doing his Ira Glass impression. At times it
was hard to tell the two apart. However, I've believed for some time
that for his /l/, Ira Glass has a uvular nasal: [N] in IPA (not to be
confused with N in SAMPA, representing the velar nasal "ng"), and I
don't think Armisen captured that. Other listeners, what do you think?

Neal

On 1/20/2013 11:12 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      early euphemism of the year candidate--"artificial calamari"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> …as a label for pig bung.  No, not pork bun as so labeled at your neighborhood Asian market, but hog rectum--bleached, sliced, deep fried, and served up with lemon.  It's not clear how much of this is available for your domestic consumption, however.  More at
>
> http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/484/doppelgangers?act=1
>
> To connect this with a recent thread, note the eloquent explanation for the resistance to the idea of pig bung in calamari clothing.  After noting the possibility of being put off by either "the visual" associated with hog rectum or the fact that some would-be calamari eaters wouldn't want to find out they were eating "pork, period". Ira Glass brings up there's the linguistic factor. As Farmer Ron from Missouri drawls at around 10:15 of the above, "Just because of the word 'bung', probably. I mean, people don't just want to jump and say 'Man, I'm gonna eat me some bung tonight'. I mean, y'know, that's just the way it is."  (The transcript doesn't do justice to the delivery.)
>
> We've come a long way from "skim milk masquerades as cream", baby!
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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