Sunday, July 13, 2008

Letters from N. America


Fr Sean Finnegan is blogging from the US at the moment, have a read of his letters, they are very amusing.

3 comments:

gemoftheocean said...

Agreed. His take on "La hoya" was particularly hysterical, along with his take on the sea world visit. He really was a good sport about the "helo" ride. I've got a post up about my take on the sea world trip, plus a little sea world vid and some pics I took of the harbor cruise he didn't have a chance to go on due to last minute schedule changes. It's fun to see what particularly strikes a first time visitor to the US. His "refill" surprise, for instance. I agree, very Alistair Cooke like.

Pastor in Monte said...

Hey, dude!

gemoftheocean said...

Well, Father has been picking up the local lingo nicely. He can probably inflect that "dude" 10 different ways by now.

It can mean anything from "hey, guy, howya hangin'" to "DUDE!!, are you a moron!! You just lit a cigarette and the dog rolled through gasoline and you're standing right next to him." to agreement "dude, that is some awesome watermelon." to mild disgust "duude, I am SO outta here, I hate working here."

and about a dozen other things. A very good all purpose utility word. In each case NONE of the words following the inital "dude" are necessary - meaning is conveyed in intensity and inflection. Our version of Chinese. I think father gave you the first one, dude. Or possibly "Dude! Next time come with me."

When I was stealin' hubcaps in high school a "dude" was only used to refer to a male. "did you see that dude over there" [girls could say that] But one girl would not say to another as they do now "DUDE! [meaning "attention, girlfriend] Scope out that guy in the raybans."
But high school girls quite frequently do that now. And I've even heard it said among 30 year old women.

I feel staid. duude[sigh[! ["I'm soooo getting old.]

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