We have so many crazy phrases in Texas people literally write books about them. One I frequently use in winter use is a bit crude: colder than a welldigger’s ass. I was having drinks a few years back with my good friend Steve Huston RIP (former drummer for the band Head East) who told me he heard the phrase as a kid in Missouri. I had always assumed it was an oil bidness expression so we looked it up. Turns out it originated in the Midwest during pioneer days when people would dig water wells. Amazingly, I also learned there is an actual precise temperature of 53 degrees that is the tipping point for the phrase. The Google Gods have spoken lol 😂
There are books written about the Geordie language (the dialect spoken in Newcastle -- called Geordie because they supported King George rather than Bonnie Prince Charlie). They have a few colourful turns of phrases but sometimes can be almost incomprehensible. My sister when she first heard two people speaking Northumbrian thought it was some weird Scando dialect (she speaks Norwegian and went to the University of Oslo for her degree).
Newcastle Brown Ale is a fave of mine. First time I visited London I tried to order a pint and I literally could not understand the bartender. Two peoples separated by a common language
We have lots of foreign people where I work- Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, French, German. All speaking English and understanding each other. But nobody could understand the Englishman from Newcastle. We would all look at each other - what did he just say???
A waitress at an El Salvadorian restaurant in California once could not understand an English friend of mine. I helpfully translated the request for water into wa-der (Americans are more likely pronounce a middle t like a d) -- the waitress's face cleared and she duly brought a glass. She then said 'I don't know what language he was talking but it certainly wasn't English.' LOL.
I work for a Scottish company, in a division in Mexico. Quite a few conference calls I struggle to translate the Scots to the Mexicans (which most of them speak better English than me)
There are many people South of the Border (aka England and Wales) who also struggle with Scots. Glaswegian is something else again! And there are the Welsh accents and the Cornish (the latter sound like people speaking 'pirate' to my ear but I am not a Tre, Pol or Pen -- by their names you shall know the Cornish men)
Our HQ is on the outskirts of Glasgow (Bridge of Weir), most of the staff is local/generational. Had a Director whose accent was so thick not even the locals understood him.(great in planning, written communication ) Got to the point couldn’t hide him anymore, as his position was to be forward facing with customer base (northern EU/America)
That’s a hoot 🦉 - I’m good w/ Google, getting a capital “G”; they’re a huge, ubiquitous, growing creepier by by the day but bonefied corporation. & unless the English language w/ its unusual grammar rules has not yet been recently reimagined & reengineered, & released to the www, a capital G for Google is, from a grammatically perspective correct.
But their AI gods - no- just my opinion, Google gods are not deserving of a capital ‘G’. Just saying.
PS I’m being a combo of sorta serious & sorta silly 🙃 Happy Friday everyone. Travel mercies Ceila & Mr Celia 👩❤️👨 🙏
Did you say spirit level? As in, "lost the bubble?" (Any situation in which one has forgotten or been sidetracked from the purpose of present activity.)
Time for a compare and contrast between Roy Cooper and Ron DeSantis. And media coverage of Bush ( Katrina) versus Biden Harris ( Helene). Maybe 60 minutes will hop on that one after investigating itself and the CBS News division which was fully exposed this past week.
We all know that it will NEVER happen! I am not a Republican, but how can we EVER trust the MSM again? From Huntley and Brinkley to Nora O'Donnel? WOW!
OMG! Roy who??? Dude is completely checked out and incapable. "I don't know what to do so I'll wait for the feds....oh hey feds here you are finally....5 days later".
No jokes, but an observation...Since moving to Middle Georgia over a year and a half ago, I have not seen so many obese and physically handicapped people in all my life! Perhaps it is just diet or culture, I'm not sure, but from what I have seen on menus from restaurants, and the line-up in the meat aisle of the supermarkets, I would say that it is a long-time cultural problem.
Don't get me wrong, because I love my new home here. People are friendlier and more accommodating than in SoCal from where I moved, (I am originally from Cleveland, a literal LIFETIME ago), but it saddens me to see so many people suffering from lifestyle decisions and generational cultures that leave them with a difficult life. Poverty? Sure, that is part of it. Lack of education? Of course, that is also part of it, but the area that I live in, with an Airforce base nearby, is pretty diverse. So traditional reasons don't wash with me. We have Jamaicans, Muslims, a 37% Black population, quite a number of Hispanic peoples from Mexico and Central America, and many, many northern transplants. But the problem remains.
I kiddingly tell my northern and SoCal friends that Georgia is the land of beards, bellies, and barbeque. I remain beardless, and I am battling the belly expansion as I age (I am 73 years-old), so maybe I will never fit the mold.
As a native born Southerner who happens to have good genes, I can tell you unequivocally it’s the diet. But we see the same thing here in Ohio where I live now.
B3: I like it. Of course, here in semi-rural OH where I live, it’s about the same. Beards and bellies for sure. Diet definitely plays a big part, reference Casey Means and others like her. But the hugely sedentary lifestyle is also a big factor. I’ve seen people here get in their car to drive to their mailbox because their driveway is a quarter-mile or more long. How lazy can you be?!?
NPR had an obesity specialist (whatever that is) on yesterday who went on and on about the multiple causes of the modem obesity epidemic but didn’t mention the simplest one: people are eating more and exercising less. She was pimping for government funding of this new line of Ozempic type drugs. I stay about 6’ 200 pounds (my doctor always wants me at 185-190) but Texas is kind of the South and kind of the West in terms of eating habits. I would fear those drugs just reset your metabolism and once you’re off them, much like the amphetamine based diet drugs of the past, you’d put the weight right back on
The best way and cheapest way to lose weight is to change your diet and go for a walk. It takes longer and the health benefits are much greater than taking drugs.
Might be borderline TMI but: Circumstances prevented me from eating anything before late afternoon one day a few years ago -- an Ash Wednesday, ironically -- and I realized that I wasn't any more hungry than I would have been had I eaten breakfast and lunch. Wow. So what started as a sort of tongue-in-cheek Lenten Fast became no eating (with a few other tweaks) before dinner unless socially necessary. Lost the weight and -- Critical! -- kept it off.
bout the same, for them folks that just suggest go for a walk, it is hard to muster up the want to and/or courage when it's still tickling 100° at 8:00 at night
I live in Canton, but work out of Wooster ( a heavily Amish area). I notice the Amish men tend to be thinner because they are doing the farm work. The older women seem to be heavier, but considering their diets, still generally thinner than the "English".
I would also venture the weather plays no insignificant part in addition to poor diet. Most of the South swelters from May to October, and then gets a blink you'll miss it fall, followed by incessant cold rains for winter. While you can get out in that to be out and about, it isn't inviting.
There's probably a gym available with treadmills, or there are inexpensive treadmills that you can by, or you can walk in place in the house, or do house work, or, or, or.........
Yes all true, but not a substitute for being able to get out and about. Even inexpensive treadmills or other exercise equipment are out of reach for people living paycheck to paycheck, and that is who is most affected by the obesity problems. Have you tried walking around your place of residence for the equivalent time you could go play a tennis match or walk through a park, day after day? For months on end? Once again, not inviting.
True, that's why I named the alternatives. Not inviting but if you're serious it's doable and yes, I have walked around my place for months at a time and still do and do housework and anything else that gets me moving. Sometimes I go to the mall and walk. I'm 85 and know that if I don't move I won't be able to move.
I’ll never forget the breakfast buffet at the Shoney’s we frequented down South in 2005. There were three different kinds of grits, cheese grits included.
Neat! Or as a beloved (back when that was possible) family doctor recommended as the key weight-loss exercise, the Push-Back: You place you hands on the edge of the dinner table and...
Robert--having spent a ton of time in the South- I totally agree w/ you! Some really bad dietary habits down there. Biscuits, fried chicken, grits and gravy, smothered okra, bar-b-q, etc. all too good to resist! It really takes a ton of willpower not to succumb! Your years in SoCal will prob. serve you well for staying healthy. That community is in diametric opposition to the wonderful indulgences of Southern food!
BTW-- I love the above mentioned food, but I value my health (and looks!) too much to go there too often. If high cholesterol and blood pressure were not an issue- I'd have bacon, biscuits and fried chicken every day!!
I have found various areas within Pa state have different levels of “will eat food && a lot even though I know that it is bad for me but I WANT it!” (Sheets vs WaWa ⬅️ also in NJ )
Anecdote:
At local Walmart in Beaver Cty in Feb mad dash for funeral needing pantyhose. I couldn’t find a size smaller than Lg all stock running up to XXXXL & again that was in pantyhose. I stopped back early this summer to do ‘research’ & found that the product line & business model in Cran Twp similar to the set up in central NJ Walmart. Between brother’s & btwn illness & their deaths 3/18 & 3/19, we made 10+ trips from Pittsburgh to Princeton; last trip Aug 2019 before Covid.
Ah - the before & after mark.
But trips to Princeton area Walmart & 6 years ago, it proved to be an entirely different experience ( in presentation, variety & quality of products & sizes.
This whole topic of age, bmi, etc is heavily embedded in medical research & patient treatment. I read last week that in use now, & for awhile in Beaver county & Ambridge along with other lower income ruralish communities — ambient AI listeners apps are permanently installed on every Microsoft desktop in the (every) exam room. AI takes patient’s electronic health information in database & listening to entire visit between patient & Dr real time => & makes recommendations ++ for Dr. to make to patient. It sounds to good to be true because they’re doing release & catch - no rigorous pre release testing.
Said to my husband on his first walk around the factory floor after we moved to from the Northeast to South Carolina:
Boy, are you a Yankee or a Damn Yankee?
What’s the difference?
A Yankee comes and leaves. A damn Yankee comes and stays.
Oh, and my grandmother, a born and bred New Englander, made French fries with her bacon fat. I’m not sure if this is a Northern or Southern thing, but all I can say is thank you! 🤤
To this day, my 94 year old Mother holds a grudge because not only was she called a damn Yankee when they moved here but she was also blackballed by the Junior League. Then she had a native Texan son who was invited to all the debutante BS in my hometown because his college girlfriend ran in that crowd, who rejected it all and became a punk rocker. The Fates are fickle 🤪
Little Debbie snacking cakes! Zebra striped were my faves. We had the Folgers can with grease but I think it’s because my Mom wouldn’t pour it down the sink. I had my first swig of moonshine at a party my band played in 1985. Thought I might go blind but instead it made my throat even rawer than my punk rock screaming. In Texas we have 7 Layer Dip not 8 and when a woman says Bless Your Heart it is a veiled insult about your intelligence. Never heard the one about the cornbread. Btw for those who asked My Mom is in Methodist Hospital with either an antibiotic reaction or a small stroke, currently out of immediate danger. My sister has told me to go ahead with my travels to the UT-OU game and State Fair this weekend . I’ll report from there tomorrow or Sunday. Safe travels to all
I'm hoping that there was a time when Moon Pies were better than they are now. My wife bought some the other day; cracker was dry and crumbly, chocolate and marshmallow were plastic-like. The grandkids ate them all, but I didn't much care for them.
I don't think I ever ate a Moon Pie as a kid ( but my parents always bought RC cola, and I like that) . Cookies pies and cakes are my weakness, so I was figuring it was going to be good -instead, disappointment was the flavor.
As someone from Cordele, GA (living now in VA), I can say that never, ever, ever did my female Georgia relatives say "Bless your heart" and mean anything other a sincere expression of sympathy. I carried on that tradition up until recently when I was told that I had just insulted a man when I said to him, "Bless your heart." He got very angry and I was like, Huh?!? I looked up the expression online and found that many consider it now to be a southerner's way of basically saying, "What a dumb shit you are." I don't know who the assholes were who changed the meaning of what used to be (at least down in south Georgia) a very sincere expression of sympathy, but they can stick their head "where the sun don't sun."
Same. It wasn't an insult where my parents were raised, and I've never used it as such (born and raised up north by southern born and raised parents). I contend if it is offered in true sympathy it's still just that, and if anyone needs to take it any other way, they'll likely know it ;).
Yes! My mom and aunts always used it as an expression of sympathy (like the Yiddish “nebech!”/poor thing!). I never heard it used in a snarky way growing up.
It's probably that our WHOLE culture has changed to one of snarky sarcasm. i think that sincerity is often lacking (not here of course!!) but on TV and in movies- and forget about songs!
Lots of guffaws, and the one that really got me was the "Southern Goodbye." I retired to Arkansas 20 years ago, my older brother too. He's got five kids, nine grandkids, four great grands, the five spouses. Four of the families are from out of State. The Thanksgiving visit, still waving from down the road, ends just about time for Christmas Eve -- drives me almost nuts. The "watch for deer" is a truism.
Mr Karg My most recent ex had a great sound bite saved in her phone from a woman who called into a radio show and asked “I don’t understand these Deer Crossing signs. How do the deer know to cross there?” 🙄
Nellie was a day late and a dollar short today. Isn’t Kerry’s 1st Amendment pile on old news? Nothing on phone-gate and Biden coming to DeSantis’s defense? On that, given how the old man is sticking it to the Dems with his passively aggressive digs at Harris, me thinks the Obama set are going to rue the day they set Biden adrift on the proverbial ice floe. He’s still got some fire in his belly.
I thought the same thing about Biden. Hopefully, it will have enough of an impact that Kamala can crawl back under the rock she came from, bless her heart.
Great visual that......Biden's ice floe melting out from under him, while he sticks it to Harris and the whole Dem party as a last act of defiance.......
A few years back, I had a client, a Dem even, who moved from WA to NC. The last contact I had with him he told me he made more friends in three weeks in NC than he had made in 3 years in WA state. So not just a political thing apparently.
I lived in the deep South for 19 yrs. and no matter how long I lived there, I'd never be from there and was always treated politely as one would treat a foreigner who didn't know any better.
I’ve got family there since late 1890’s from Italy & the stories are unbelievable- they’ve got great reachable genealogy stuff. I found the 1901 marriage announcement for my 13 1/2 yr old great grandmother born Louisiana but her parents & older brother were immigrants. My great grandfather immigrated & it was an arrangement marriage— he was 25 years old & my uncle sonny was born 9 1/2-10 months later. The richness of our individual ancestors. I was sent off in 1995 to find a maternal side secret & paternal great grandmother b in Louisiana - her maiden name. I not only found it all but lots of things no one ever knew && I’m talking like BIG secrets. && I knew them all. Them being greats grands.
I loved the one about some people's cornbread isn't done in the middle. True on many levels.
Thanks for the smiles.
Safe travels back.
This is my weekly round up of UK news etc. https://michellestyles.substack.com/p/this-is-northumberland-calling-111024
Here you go Michelle.
His elevator don’t go to the top floor.
He’s a few fish short of a full stringer.
He ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
He’s doing the best he can with what God gave him to work with.
a few bricks shy of a full load
not the brightest bulb in the chandelier
Oven’s on, nothing’s cookin’
Light's on, nobody home!
He can't grab his ass with a handful of fishhooks.
Stupid don't quite cover it.
One sandwich shy of a picnic.
He's a taco shy of a combo meal
A nugget shy of a happy meal?
We have so many crazy phrases in Texas people literally write books about them. One I frequently use in winter use is a bit crude: colder than a welldigger’s ass. I was having drinks a few years back with my good friend Steve Huston RIP (former drummer for the band Head East) who told me he heard the phrase as a kid in Missouri. I had always assumed it was an oil bidness expression so we looked it up. Turns out it originated in the Midwest during pioneer days when people would dig water wells. Amazingly, I also learned there is an actual precise temperature of 53 degrees that is the tipping point for the phrase. The Google Gods have spoken lol 😂
There are books written about the Geordie language (the dialect spoken in Newcastle -- called Geordie because they supported King George rather than Bonnie Prince Charlie). They have a few colourful turns of phrases but sometimes can be almost incomprehensible. My sister when she first heard two people speaking Northumbrian thought it was some weird Scando dialect (she speaks Norwegian and went to the University of Oslo for her degree).
But that turn of phrase is great.
Newcastle Brown Ale is a fave of mine. First time I visited London I tried to order a pint and I literally could not understand the bartender. Two peoples separated by a common language
Ah Nukey Broon.
It is v much 2 peoples separated by a common language. Scouse (Liverpudlian) is also incomprehensible.
Michelle, I love reading your posts! I enjoy everyone’s diversity on the serious to the silly here on The JP .
Try speaking with someone from Brooklyn or Queens. Aw beddah yet, Lawn Guyland.
We have lots of foreign people where I work- Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, French, German. All speaking English and understanding each other. But nobody could understand the Englishman from Newcastle. We would all look at each other - what did he just say???
I know the feeling.
A waitress at an El Salvadorian restaurant in California once could not understand an English friend of mine. I helpfully translated the request for water into wa-der (Americans are more likely pronounce a middle t like a d) -- the waitress's face cleared and she duly brought a glass. She then said 'I don't know what language he was talking but it certainly wasn't English.' LOL.
I work for a Scottish company, in a division in Mexico. Quite a few conference calls I struggle to translate the Scots to the Mexicans (which most of them speak better English than me)
Wow!
There are many people South of the Border (aka England and Wales) who also struggle with Scots. Glaswegian is something else again! And there are the Welsh accents and the Cornish (the latter sound like people speaking 'pirate' to my ear but I am not a Tre, Pol or Pen -- by their names you shall know the Cornish men)
Our HQ is on the outskirts of Glasgow (Bridge of Weir), most of the staff is local/generational. Had a Director whose accent was so thick not even the locals understood him.(great in planning, written communication ) Got to the point couldn’t hide him anymore, as his position was to be forward facing with customer base (northern EU/America)
A
That’s a hoot 🦉 - I’m good w/ Google, getting a capital “G”; they’re a huge, ubiquitous, growing creepier by by the day but bonefied corporation. & unless the English language w/ its unusual grammar rules has not yet been recently reimagined & reengineered, & released to the www, a capital G for Google is, from a grammatically perspective correct.
But their AI gods - no- just my opinion, Google gods are not deserving of a capital ‘G’. Just saying.
PS I’m being a combo of sorta serious & sorta silly 🙃 Happy Friday everyone. Travel mercies Ceila & Mr Celia 👩❤️👨 🙏
the version I heard was "Colder 'n a gravedigger's buttcrack" - adds a spiritual level, I guess...
Did you say spirit level? As in, "lost the bubble?" (Any situation in which one has forgotten or been sidetracked from the purpose of present activity.)
In MN, people said "colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra."
Yea, I laughed the most with that one.
Y'all come back now ya hear.
Pronounced Y'ear?
Ok can’t resist- this is from someone else’s childhood by way of visiting in the early 60’ his grandparents in Tazwell, TN
M🌝🌝N pies
Time for a compare and contrast between Roy Cooper and Ron DeSantis. And media coverage of Bush ( Katrina) versus Biden Harris ( Helene). Maybe 60 minutes will hop on that one after investigating itself and the CBS News division which was fully exposed this past week.
We all know that it will NEVER happen! I am not a Republican, but how can we EVER trust the MSM again? From Huntley and Brinkley to Nora O'Donnel? WOW!
Ya can’t (ever) trust the MSM again … 6/28.
OMG! Roy who??? Dude is completely checked out and incapable. "I don't know what to do so I'll wait for the feds....oh hey feds here you are finally....5 days later".
No jokes, but an observation...Since moving to Middle Georgia over a year and a half ago, I have not seen so many obese and physically handicapped people in all my life! Perhaps it is just diet or culture, I'm not sure, but from what I have seen on menus from restaurants, and the line-up in the meat aisle of the supermarkets, I would say that it is a long-time cultural problem.
Don't get me wrong, because I love my new home here. People are friendlier and more accommodating than in SoCal from where I moved, (I am originally from Cleveland, a literal LIFETIME ago), but it saddens me to see so many people suffering from lifestyle decisions and generational cultures that leave them with a difficult life. Poverty? Sure, that is part of it. Lack of education? Of course, that is also part of it, but the area that I live in, with an Airforce base nearby, is pretty diverse. So traditional reasons don't wash with me. We have Jamaicans, Muslims, a 37% Black population, quite a number of Hispanic peoples from Mexico and Central America, and many, many northern transplants. But the problem remains.
I kiddingly tell my northern and SoCal friends that Georgia is the land of beards, bellies, and barbeque. I remain beardless, and I am battling the belly expansion as I age (I am 73 years-old), so maybe I will never fit the mold.
As a native born Southerner who happens to have good genes, I can tell you unequivocally it’s the diet. But we see the same thing here in Ohio where I live now.
B3: I like it. Of course, here in semi-rural OH where I live, it’s about the same. Beards and bellies for sure. Diet definitely plays a big part, reference Casey Means and others like her. But the hugely sedentary lifestyle is also a big factor. I’ve seen people here get in their car to drive to their mailbox because their driveway is a quarter-mile or more long. How lazy can you be?!?
NPR had an obesity specialist (whatever that is) on yesterday who went on and on about the multiple causes of the modem obesity epidemic but didn’t mention the simplest one: people are eating more and exercising less. She was pimping for government funding of this new line of Ozempic type drugs. I stay about 6’ 200 pounds (my doctor always wants me at 185-190) but Texas is kind of the South and kind of the West in terms of eating habits. I would fear those drugs just reset your metabolism and once you’re off them, much like the amphetamine based diet drugs of the past, you’d put the weight right back on
The best way and cheapest way to lose weight is to change your diet and go for a walk. It takes longer and the health benefits are much greater than taking drugs.
Lost about 70 pounds a few years ago. Anyone asked how, I told 'em -- truthfully! -- the two-word diet: Stop. Eating.
It's the what, how much and how often that gets the job done.
Might be borderline TMI but: Circumstances prevented me from eating anything before late afternoon one day a few years ago -- an Ash Wednesday, ironically -- and I realized that I wasn't any more hungry than I would have been had I eaten breakfast and lunch. Wow. So what started as a sort of tongue-in-cheek Lenten Fast became no eating (with a few other tweaks) before dinner unless socially necessary. Lost the weight and -- Critical! -- kept it off.
Yep !! The one way requiring discipline & the relearning of habits … v tough stuff for some - but possible.
bout the same, for them folks that just suggest go for a walk, it is hard to muster up the want to and/or courage when it's still tickling 100° at 8:00 at night
Treadmill plus iPad to watch a show while you walk.
I live in Canton, but work out of Wooster ( a heavily Amish area). I notice the Amish men tend to be thinner because they are doing the farm work. The older women seem to be heavier, but considering their diets, still generally thinner than the "English".
V interesting… teaching by example vs training by bombarding w/ directed advertising & not to encourage better habits necessarily.
Well... I once saw someone "walking" their dog from the car. No lie.
You tend to see what you’re looking for. Macon/Warner Robbin’s got no corner on fat folks.
It is all that homemade bread 🍞 back to last week’s discussion. 🙄
Robert, have you been to Wisconsin lately? Yikes!
I suspect nearly every food is fried (including Twinkies!) and/or covered in cheese. Just sayin'
Long live Squeaky Cheese!
Here's to the cheese heads!
And according to my hubby, long live stinky cheese!
I would also venture the weather plays no insignificant part in addition to poor diet. Most of the South swelters from May to October, and then gets a blink you'll miss it fall, followed by incessant cold rains for winter. While you can get out in that to be out and about, it isn't inviting.
There's probably a gym available with treadmills, or there are inexpensive treadmills that you can by, or you can walk in place in the house, or do house work, or, or, or.........
Yes all true, but not a substitute for being able to get out and about. Even inexpensive treadmills or other exercise equipment are out of reach for people living paycheck to paycheck, and that is who is most affected by the obesity problems. Have you tried walking around your place of residence for the equivalent time you could go play a tennis match or walk through a park, day after day? For months on end? Once again, not inviting.
True, that's why I named the alternatives. Not inviting but if you're serious it's doable and yes, I have walked around my place for months at a time and still do and do housework and anything else that gets me moving. Sometimes I go to the mall and walk. I'm 85 and know that if I don't move I won't be able to move.
I’ll never forget the breakfast buffet at the Shoney’s we frequented down South in 2005. There were three different kinds of grits, cheese grits included.
I do miss grits and collard greens.
And okra.
best be fried
Agreed!
Grits in themselves are not bad- like potatoes-it's what you pile on them! Collards can be cooked healthy as well!!
Kate, grits seemed to me to have all the nutrition of packing peanuts. But they're yummy with cheese (what isn't?). And I'm with you on collards.
Gotta lose the barbecue before you kin lose the belly!
Cain't outrun the fork!
Neat! Or as a beloved (back when that was possible) family doctor recommended as the key weight-loss exercise, the Push-Back: You place you hands on the edge of the dinner table and...
Georgia, home of Coca Cola. You drink 6 or more Cokes a day and you’ll end up obese and diabetic.
Robert--having spent a ton of time in the South- I totally agree w/ you! Some really bad dietary habits down there. Biscuits, fried chicken, grits and gravy, smothered okra, bar-b-q, etc. all too good to resist! It really takes a ton of willpower not to succumb! Your years in SoCal will prob. serve you well for staying healthy. That community is in diametric opposition to the wonderful indulgences of Southern food!
BTW-- I love the above mentioned food, but I value my health (and looks!) too much to go there too often. If high cholesterol and blood pressure were not an issue- I'd have bacon, biscuits and fried chicken every day!!
I have found various areas within Pa state have different levels of “will eat food && a lot even though I know that it is bad for me but I WANT it!” (Sheets vs WaWa ⬅️ also in NJ )
Anecdote:
At local Walmart in Beaver Cty in Feb mad dash for funeral needing pantyhose. I couldn’t find a size smaller than Lg all stock running up to XXXXL & again that was in pantyhose. I stopped back early this summer to do ‘research’ & found that the product line & business model in Cran Twp similar to the set up in central NJ Walmart. Between brother’s & btwn illness & their deaths 3/18 & 3/19, we made 10+ trips from Pittsburgh to Princeton; last trip Aug 2019 before Covid.
Ah - the before & after mark.
But trips to Princeton area Walmart & 6 years ago, it proved to be an entirely different experience ( in presentation, variety & quality of products & sizes.
This whole topic of age, bmi, etc is heavily embedded in medical research & patient treatment. I read last week that in use now, & for awhile in Beaver county & Ambridge along with other lower income ruralish communities — ambient AI listeners apps are permanently installed on every Microsoft desktop in the (every) exam room. AI takes patient’s electronic health information in database & listening to entire visit between patient & Dr real time => & makes recommendations ++ for Dr. to make to patient. It sounds to good to be true because they’re doing release & catch - no rigorous pre release testing.
Can I get an Amen for biscuits and gravy?!? 😍
Ya'll got that right.
Said to my husband on his first walk around the factory floor after we moved to from the Northeast to South Carolina:
Boy, are you a Yankee or a Damn Yankee?
What’s the difference?
A Yankee comes and leaves. A damn Yankee comes and stays.
Oh, and my grandmother, a born and bred New Englander, made French fries with her bacon fat. I’m not sure if this is a Northern or Southern thing, but all I can say is thank you! 🤤
To this day, my 94 year old Mother holds a grudge because not only was she called a damn Yankee when they moved here but she was also blackballed by the Junior League. Then she had a native Texan son who was invited to all the debutante BS in my hometown because his college girlfriend ran in that crowd, who rejected it all and became a punk rocker. The Fates are fickle 🤪
When I moved to Atlanta, people (attempting politeness, I assume) asked whether I was a "Georgia Peach." I obviously wasn't.
Probably English/Irish.
The south is undoubtably my favorite place to be (I've lived and worked in 30+ states). Southerners are some of my favorite peoples.
In Texas, they are welcoming and warm ... I used to tell them that I got there as fast as I could!
My first trip to a Piggly Wiggly in NC, I determined that if I had a needle and thread in the meat aisle, I could re-build a pig!
Nobody retires and moves up north.
You can say that, again.
There was a guy at our company who wanted to retire to Duluth and I think he did. My wife and I agree this not what we are thinking of....
If you're going to Duluth, MN, it's probably b/c you love to hunt, fish, and canoe. (For real.) Maybe skiing too.
That includes ice fishing, of course!
Little Debbie snacking cakes! Zebra striped were my faves. We had the Folgers can with grease but I think it’s because my Mom wouldn’t pour it down the sink. I had my first swig of moonshine at a party my band played in 1985. Thought I might go blind but instead it made my throat even rawer than my punk rock screaming. In Texas we have 7 Layer Dip not 8 and when a woman says Bless Your Heart it is a veiled insult about your intelligence. Never heard the one about the cornbread. Btw for those who asked My Mom is in Methodist Hospital with either an antibiotic reaction or a small stroke, currently out of immediate danger. My sister has told me to go ahead with my travels to the UT-OU game and State Fair this weekend . I’ll report from there tomorrow or Sunday. Safe travels to all
Nutty Bars, are far superior! lol. Have a great weekend!
Team nutty bar!
Moonpies. And fishing. They're apparently inseparable according to my husband who was born and raised here.
Glad to hear your mom is doing better and have fun at the game!
Moonpies and RC cola. And peanuts in your coke. All soda pop is called "Coke".
Boiled peanuts.
Moonpie and a Big Red......childhood memories.
I'm hoping that there was a time when Moon Pies were better than they are now. My wife bought some the other day; cracker was dry and crumbly, chocolate and marshmallow were plastic-like. The grandkids ate them all, but I didn't much care for them.
Not what they used to be…
I don't think I ever ate a Moon Pie as a kid ( but my parents always bought RC cola, and I like that) . Cookies pies and cakes are my weakness, so I was figuring it was going to be good -instead, disappointment was the flavor.
Yes! But in Atlanta you were also allowed to say "co-cola."
Yes, I’ve used that before. Now I’ve been Yankeeized and use “pop”.
very glad to hear your mom is out of danger Ken!
Praying 🙏 Be safe.
As someone from Cordele, GA (living now in VA), I can say that never, ever, ever did my female Georgia relatives say "Bless your heart" and mean anything other a sincere expression of sympathy. I carried on that tradition up until recently when I was told that I had just insulted a man when I said to him, "Bless your heart." He got very angry and I was like, Huh?!? I looked up the expression online and found that many consider it now to be a southerner's way of basically saying, "What a dumb shit you are." I don't know who the assholes were who changed the meaning of what used to be (at least down in south Georgia) a very sincere expression of sympathy, but they can stick their head "where the sun don't sun."
Same. It wasn't an insult where my parents were raised, and I've never used it as such (born and raised up north by southern born and raised parents). I contend if it is offered in true sympathy it's still just that, and if anyone needs to take it any other way, they'll likely know it ;).
Yes! My mom and aunts always used it as an expression of sympathy (like the Yiddish “nebech!”/poor thing!). I never heard it used in a snarky way growing up.
It's probably that our WHOLE culture has changed to one of snarky sarcasm. i think that sincerity is often lacking (not here of course!!) but on TV and in movies- and forget about songs!
Lots of guffaws, and the one that really got me was the "Southern Goodbye." I retired to Arkansas 20 years ago, my older brother too. He's got five kids, nine grandkids, four great grands, the five spouses. Four of the families are from out of State. The Thanksgiving visit, still waving from down the road, ends just about time for Christmas Eve -- drives me almost nuts. The "watch for deer" is a truism.
Mr Karg My most recent ex had a great sound bite saved in her phone from a woman who called into a radio show and asked “I don’t understand these Deer Crossing signs. How do the deer know to cross there?” 🙄
It's their official crossing points - they get ticketed otherwise :).
Oh dear! My crazy brain went from 'ticketed' as in a penalty, to 'ticketed' as in full of ticks!
Rain - of course you did. "Deer-ticks." Of course.
Poet - Ooo, I want that sound bite! And, if you're done with that ex, I'll take her.
Ok, my first chuckle Mr. Karg 🤣🤣
We always begjn to leave any family gathering at least 30 minutes before we actually need to be gone.
Update from TFree Press
TGIF was by Nellie Bowles herself. She seems to be drifting away from Harris -Walz
Jumping off the Titanic just before it goes under
I commented there today. Too many takes to absorb and many I still don’t agree with
Nellie was a day late and a dollar short today. Isn’t Kerry’s 1st Amendment pile on old news? Nothing on phone-gate and Biden coming to DeSantis’s defense? On that, given how the old man is sticking it to the Dems with his passively aggressive digs at Harris, me thinks the Obama set are going to rue the day they set Biden adrift on the proverbial ice floe. He’s still got some fire in his belly.
I thought the same thing about Biden. Hopefully, it will have enough of an impact that Kamala can crawl back under the rock she came from, bless her heart.
I'm sure you meant that 'bless her heart' in the best possible way of course! (ha ha)
"Best possible way" being somewhat addressee-dependent.
Great visual that......Biden's ice floe melting out from under him, while he sticks it to Harris and the whole Dem party as a last act of defiance.......
Fire in the belly is his replacement for brains in the head.
The Melania slam was unnecessary. But very on brand.
How dare she be beautiful, rich, a caring mom, and caring about others?!?
For what? Credibility of the FP is zilch. Thank you Disa ‼️
When people ask us how we like NC compared to OR we've refined our reply to, "It's as beautiful but without the ugly people".
A few years back, I had a client, a Dem even, who moved from WA to NC. The last contact I had with him he told me he made more friends in three weeks in NC than he had made in 3 years in WA state. So not just a political thing apparently.
I lived in the deep South for 19 yrs. and no matter how long I lived there, I'd never be from there and was always treated politely as one would treat a foreigner who didn't know any better.
I lived in southern Louisiana for 7 years and never stopped being called a Yankee.
I’ve got family there since late 1890’s from Italy & the stories are unbelievable- they’ve got great reachable genealogy stuff. I found the 1901 marriage announcement for my 13 1/2 yr old great grandmother born Louisiana but her parents & older brother were immigrants. My great grandfather immigrated & it was an arrangement marriage— he was 25 years old & my uncle sonny was born 9 1/2-10 months later. The richness of our individual ancestors. I was sent off in 1995 to find a maternal side secret & paternal great grandmother b in Louisiana - her maiden name. I not only found it all but lots of things no one ever knew && I’m talking like BIG secrets. && I knew them all. Them being greats grands.
May I ask what type of work, you referenced a client & your own substacks are so rich in everything. Please not trying to pry.🙏
I loved the “sayings” and I had a good morning laugh. True, nobody goes to retire up north.
Happy Friday, Y'all!
Thank you so much for the chuckles! I lived in Atlanta for 10 years and DC for 1.5 years, so I can appreciate these memes. :D
I think the 8-layer Goodbye is stolen from the "Minnesota Goodbye" however, especially b/c of the deer reference.
My favorite were the Southern Mom, Dollar General, and the opening line of a Southern story. :D
What's the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story? "Once upon a time" vs "Hey, this is a no-sh!tter, fellas!"
Edit: I don't think that fairies have tails. Fershlugginer homonyms...
The Minnesota good bye. You might be able to actually leave 45 minutes after the first good bye is said.