Question: Take a typical Las Vegas cholo with his pants sagging to the point where one inch lower might get him arrested, and with one of the pants cuffs being swallowed by his shoe a bit more than the other. What is the logical answer to his situation?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not even.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Wrong! The words might be correct on paper, but the articulation of these words proves simply that one can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always give an accurate rendering of certain words merely by looking at the orthographics.<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
No self-respecting cholo would ever say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not even.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rather, that expression requires a warmup, a running start. Therefore, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not even\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ought really be spelled, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hhnnott eee-vun.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Now doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that give a more faithful rendering of this bit of Las Vegas Speak?<\/p>\n
In this town, we simply have our own way of speaking. A delightful article by Albuquerque Journal writer Leslie Linthicum concerns \u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Expletive) Burque\u00c3\u00b1os Say.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s based on a humorous collection of expressions people in Albuquerque use. But the title barely covers it. The jargon is not exclusive to Albuquerque; in fact, some might say it began in the Meadow City.<\/p>\n
But one further explanation: The highly popular website from which Linthicum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s article is derived, does contain an expletive, the s-word, but this being a family newspaper, we need to euphemize.<\/p>\n
The article appeared on the Optic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s front page Monday. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s based on a video that shows a young woman, Lauren Poole offering someone a soft drink. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Want a Coke?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she asks several times, but each time she holds a different soft drink, first an orange soda, then lemon-lime, then Pepsi.<\/p>\n
But isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done for years? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s go have a Coke\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has never meant a Coca-Cola product, but any kind of sweet beverage. In our house, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve offered our guests Cokes many times, although we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had any real Cokes in our fridge since the last millennium. Our guests know what we mean.<\/p>\n
Another thing we do in this town is to make sure every business gets a possessive. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I went to Safeway\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d hear people say, when they really just went to Safeway. And people dine at El Rialto\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. I heard a family member telling about having shopped at Piggly Wiggly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, when there was such a store, not too long ago. It was possibly that grocery chain that drove out Safeway and even Furr\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. And as Piggly Wiggly said to Furr\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is no safe way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So why the craze for adding an apostrophe and an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? I imagine it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because so many mom-and-pop stores in my youth were named after the owner. We had Pe\u00c3\u00b1a\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Grocery across the street from my Railroad Avenue home; James Garbarino ran Garbarino\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Store on Grand, and Orlando Marquez owned and operated Marquez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Grocery nearby. And we often went to a store I \tknew only as Poncho\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n
Owners of small stores like to include their first or last name on the marquee. And that tradition continues. Notice how many businesses still carry the owners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 names, such as McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Dick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Nelson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Maryann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Talita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. And Walgreens confuses us locals, as there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no apostrophe in that name.<\/p>\n
The idea of adding an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to businesses carries on to random words as well. There is absolutely no possessive even implied in the headline to Linthicum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s article that reads, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t laughed so hard in forevers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forevers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? That usage just has to be an outgrowth of the possessive form of businesses. And yet, one of my sisters-in-law bids me adieu with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153laters.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The highly popular YouTube blog is the product of an Albuquerque group called Blackout Theatre. For sure, we get a taste of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153omberrrs (some spell it umberzz),\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a sound I first heard from my middle son Diego, after his first day at school in Anton Chico.<\/p>\n
Just the way Diego said the word made me wonder what it could possibly portend. Newly coined expressions often have an accusatory tone, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shame on you (or oh, nooo),\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sometimes accompanied by a gesture in which we run one index finger across the other while pointing at the object of our scorn.<\/p>\n
Or is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153omberrrs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d another kind of warning, like when we holler \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truchas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to give notice that there might be cops around. Is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truchas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trout,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a Spanish equivalent of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cheese \tit \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the cops\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n
Linthicum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s article gives us lots of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bueno, bye,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153melp you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an economical way of saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153May I help you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without being too free with extra syllables. And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find questions like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are we going or no?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you all mad or no?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get down\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the car. But as any agrarian knows, one doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get down from a car or a horse. One gets down from a swan or a goose.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
An expression we hear a lot in this area has to do with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153closing the light.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The one saying that clearly is referring to turning off the headlights or the overhead light. When a couple of us heard that term, during a camping trip, the other person said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When people say \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcclose the light\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re really saying \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcclose the circuit.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Not anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s idea of an electrician, I questioned that interpretation. A closed circuit means a continuous flow of current; an open circuit means there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no flow. And paradoxically, if you leave the water in your tub running, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve created a closed circuit, even if the tap is open.<\/p>\n
I believe the meaning of those who say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153close the light\u00e2\u20ac\u009d comes closer to covering something, as one would a fire. Do you buy this interpretation or no? The French say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153couvre le feu,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from which we get curfew).<\/p>\n
Remember last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discourse on how our Interstate ramps have no working lights? They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been \u00e2\u20ac\u0153closed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for a long time. Many of us would like for there to be a closed circuit there.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try to provide a more cogent explanation of open and closed circuits, laters, by checking out books from Donnelly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s or Carnegie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Take a typical Las Vegas cholo with his pants sagging to the point where one inch lower might get him arrested, and with one of the pants cuffs being swallowed by his shoe a bit more than the other. What is the logical answer to his situation? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not even.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wrong! The words might be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}