PASTIMES

Movies and TV

Elaine and I like to spend our evenings watching movies.  Last night we watched a movie take-off of Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea." Read the book instead.

After the movie, the TV set automatically plugged into old "Perry Mason" shows.  You know, with  those last minute Court Room surprises. Back in the late 1950's and 1960's, I watched those weekly shows religiously and always tried to guess the outcomes.  This was a lot of fun for me.

Elaine's parents had a little round TV at the time, but did not let her watch "violent" shows.  So, this  was all new to her and I think she got hooked. She's watching the show right now.

That reminds me:

My kids and I used to refer to "Perry Mason" as "Pierre Maison."

In these old shows it's fun to see:

Telephone cords were long and curly and had to be plugged and unplugged if you wanted to move it to a new location.

Men always wore a necktie, even when mowing the grass (with a "push mower"), often wearing a suit.

Women always dressed up when going shopping. The usual accessories were white gloves, "pill box" hats and high heels.

The automobiles were long and had "fins" sticking out of their backs. (One day, as I was walking along a crowded street wearing my new wristwatch, I got close to the street and my left arm brushed against a parked car.  One of those long "fins" was tougher than my new watch and smashed it.)

Word Study

Today, Professor Curzon talked about English dialects. You know, some locations like soda; some like Coke; some like tonic; some like soft drink.

During my first year at Boston University, I spent a lot of time at one of their libraries, where I discovered a study of New England dialects. I found out that New Bedford, Massachusetts has a dialect that is completely different than any other.

Language influences come from a population of whalemen, a large population of Portuguese speakers, runaway slaves, Mayflower descendants, members of local Indian tribes and Norwegian fishermen.  

Fall River, Massachusetts  also has a large Portuguese speaking population, but the Fall River dialect is different from New Bedford's.

That reminds me:

My late wife had a Norwegian fisherman friend who was a fan of "Annie Take Back." This is how he pronounced the name of the Swedish actress, "Anita Ekberg."

There is a multi-volume work called the "Dictionary of (American) Regional English", known to linguists as "DARE."  It's a bit expensive so I'm waiting until I can get it cheaply on my Kindle.  Or, perhaps I can reference it online.  I'm checking.

Weird word of the day

badonkadonk - having nice buttocks

To achieve a badonkadonk, you need to focus on your gluteus maximus by engaging in cardio and weight training.

Trace Adkins has a song, "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," part of which says: 

"Lord have mercy, how'd she even get those britches on 

That honky tonk  badonkadonk."

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Is this dedicated to Kim Kardashian?

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