Tipdin

Ok, ok.... I never thought of that one - I'm so used to thinking of it as a bird! But we also use it to mean silly. There are a few others for silly that I can think of right now: squirrel, a dim bulb, doorknob, numbskull, and a recently overheard term: a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Alright? It's 1:00 a.m. I'm going to 'hit the hay' or 'collect a few z's' or 'call it a wrap' or 'make a vain attempt at beauty sleep' = go to bed. How do you know about the loon, anyway?

Now, now.... It's for gently biting while...well, it's there for a reason!

Dope in the Midwest is just a dumbbell, a person being foolish. I've been asking everyone for words to include here, but everyone seems so blinded to the outside world! As if everything we say is universally understood. (Midwest arrogance?) How about klunker? Or clunker. A junk-heap of a car, anything gone wrong.

I'm going to have to start a translation dictionary. You're giving me words that I have never even heard before! I love this!

Interesting word. Do you know its etymology? I could not find its history when I looked. Is this an acronym? Shortened form of another word?

Excellent 'conversation'! Thank you!

I remember Diana's wedding too, it was quite a show! @ Nephylim: often in news print, writers use a last name to refer to a person that has been first introduced using their first name. It's weird though, isn't it? And after the published photos of William taking a leak, we know what Kate will be getting for a wedding gift! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Charles, with the help of a few others, have reduced the stature of the royals - they do indeed seem like plain old celebrities now, not regal 'betters.'

His music can be found in the iTunes stores - I bought several songs.

Perfectly sensible - and sweet! We need to come up with some sort of medieval torture for people that don't have sense. I was rear-ended while sitting at a red by a woman that was reaching in her purse for her phone while going 65 miles an hour. My sports car was shoved under the semi-truck in front of me, shearing the top off the car. Luckily, I just happened to glance in the rearview mirror and ducked just in time. My own cell phone was in my pocket - which I used to call the police. (With very shaky hands!)

Ah, some excellent additions! I like that you mentioned a cooker, that would be a stove here. A lager would be lumberjack. In queue is something we don't even say. It's just standing in line or lining up. Here's an interesting one. Cock and cock-up, here, in the Midwest of the US, those words would NEVER be spoken under ANY circumstances by one in polite society. Period - NEVER, not for ANY reason. The word cock, even tough it is just a dumb 'ol rooster, it is simply SOOOO offensive that NOBODY says it - NOBODY. It is the worst thing one can say. Even in dirty, sexy talk in the privacy of a bedroom Midwesterner's mouths simply cannot form the word. The Midwest vocal chords are incapable of creating the sound - it is THAT taboo. What you call butty we would spell as buddy, but mean the same thing. And yes, fries here are square-cut lengths of potato either deep fried or baked in the oven. (Which reminds me, I would love to own an AGA! But the vast majority of Americans wouldn't even know what it is - they simply are not available.)

I was reading the notes regarding accents, and that got me thinking - not an easy task! People started commenting on a specific word spoken in the US meaning something vastly different in the UK or Australia. So I thought it would be fun to try and find equivalents. Here, in the Midwest of the US, a cracker is a thin crispy wafer one eats with soup. In some parts of the US it is a derogatory term for a white person. What does is mean in your area? Here are a few from the Midwest: Pop = soda, father Coke = any brand of soda (mostly used in the southern areas) Trunk = back end of an automobile Boot = a foot covering Hood = front end of an automobile Bonnet = a type of hat worn by females in the past Gas = gasoline for an automobile Wheels = any type of automobile Crib = the living space that one calls home Peepers = eyes Cell = mobile phone Crusties = underpants Straps = suspenders to hold one's pants Pants = exterior covering of lower half of the body Chemist = a specific field of study Drug Store = pharmacy A jiffy = a short amount of time Fag = an extremely offensive insult Dinner = the evening meal A sleeper = BORING! Chill = relax, calm down Lame = stupid, unacceptable Keen = astute Lory = the misspelled form of the female name Lori Van = delivery truck The tube = television Pint = a scientific measurement Cool = acceptable, nice, great, I like it! Sad = unacceptable, stupid, I dislike it! Chip = a boy's nickname, a component of a computer, a small piece of something Spuds = potatoes Barbie = a female name Steamed = angry Dweeb = joking term for someone doing something foolish Lark = a type of bird Holiday = a government sanctioned day of recognition Vacation = time away from one's employment Nick = a shortened form of the male name Nicolas Steal = to take something without permission Ticker = one's heart Bar = a place one goes for a drink, a standard of judgment Chick = a female Bugger = an irritating person Out back = the area behind a building Cuss = irritating person, to swear To jet = to leave That's it off the top of my head. Please share some words from your area of the planet!

I totally get the work aspect - I carried a mobile phone when they weighed 10 pounds and came in a briefcase! I understand that it is a vital tool of business. It sounds like you have sense about using the little beastie - too many lack that sense. I understand wanting to stay connected, but I don't understand when people are rude and disruptive. If you're in a movie, a classroom, a CHURCH, I don't care to hear your phone ring - or play some of the stupid sounds that people choose. I was in the Library the other day and some guy's phone started going off- his ring tone was Bart Simpson's voice - loud enough to be clearly heard over the roar of a hurricane! I'm taking some college classes and the gal I sit next to in my CRITICAL THINKING CLASS, is texting throughout the entire class, snickering at funny notes, or trying to show me notes that have come through. Ironic. I guess this is about boundaries and discretion, what we old farts used to call common sense. I guess common sense has followed common decency into that misty place called 'The Realm of Were.'

Yes, I saw his video - wow. He's a good speaker - well organized and made some very good points. I hope those that need to, hear his message.

My cousin informed me about this guy. Have you seen him? Nick Pitera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aty-dIj8ns&feature=share

Some of you people.... Ok, here's a question for the addicts: why? Why is it that you NEED to be texting or calling or in-touch 24/7? I must confess, I used to own and operate a suicide hotline so any time I can get away from a phone - it's a good thing! But I began to notice that so many people, (especially you youngens!) you actually NEED to be actively involved with your phones - almost continuously. Do you go without it if you are on a date for the evening?

I don't get much telemarketing at home or on my cell - I religiously call the DO NOT CALL list line so that my numbers are prohibited from being targeted. It works fairly well. Any telemarketers that get thru, get hung up on. I just wondered if other people delete, ignore, or side-step ads without ever knowing what was being advertised. It has become ridiculously invasive.

I think most of us would be!

I am surrounded by and inundated with advertising nearly every waking moment. They crawl along the edges of Internet pages, they pop up in my emails, I get them on my cell phone, they are interrupted by TV shows, they fall out of magazines, they fill up my snail mailbox, and recently, they were the humiliating uniforms for some poor unfortunate employees. The oil changing joint down the street behaved like a pimp, sending their employees out to the street corners to try enticing passing drivers! When I log onto Yahoo to get mail, I know the entire page is covered with an ad for something. No clue what it's for - I don't notice it anymore. There's where my question comes in: Do you even notice anymore what ads your being bombarded with? I can watch a TV commercial and have no idea what was being sold! It's like my brain filters out all that crap, so companies spend billions to get my attention and it's not working. The only TV commercial I can remember is where some handsome guy named Billy was yelling at me to buy this AMAZING product, it was a type of cleaning product - which I had been using for years! His yelling was so irritating that I quit using it! So? Advertising - notice or not?

When do we start practicing on each other?

...OMG, a therapist could have a field day with this! Well, my grandmother always said "...put out the best for company."

That is a great post. Good advice - something I have done for decades, (even before computers...!) I call it my Bits-n-Pieces folder. I literally have a folder in my desk drawer that must be 40 years old. I have gone dumpster diving head first into both, real and virtual, folders at times, creating entirely new stories from the discarded bits. It can be very useful. And you're correct about the bits and pieces often becoming like old friends.

Looks matter. However, (hopefully) intelligent people will not settle for someone with looks, alone. Besides, looks fade FAR sooner and faster than intelligence. We (as a society) teach our children to be be shallow and superficial, so beauty matters more than it should. It's silly, isn't it? Beauty is, rightfully, in the eye of the beholder, yet we're always trying to make "THE" look that is the one and only way to be perceived as beautiful by everyone. We need to start teaching our children that they are inherently beautiful - and that beauty has very little to do with the way one looks. We emphasize looks when we should be emphasizing attitude.

Thanks for posting those vids - very cool. I especially enjoyed the Michael Jackson video; what a neat thing to do. I would assume it brought joy and diversion to a great number of people - in a place that has limited joy to begin with. Why can't we do more of this kind of thing? Music - it's relatively inexpensive and brings people together. I think Michael was onto something, we could bring about world peace by creating music groups comprised of players from every country on Earth, who then go around creating HUGE musical extravaganzas. If those events were recorded on video and played everywhere, I think that would help us more than the efforts of all the ambassadors who ever lived - combined. And music can be like comfort food - it sticks with you, making you feel full for a good long time. If countries just focused on working together to create music, we might not put so much effort into killing each other.

To draw inspiration from our personal lives is a natural, predictable thing; it can have a powerful influence on our writing. But we must not take our real lives, families; friends, and paste them into a book, we must limit our use to shadows of them, or perhaps only glimpses of the shadows. I know some of my family and friends have claimed to recognize themselves in some of my stories, but I always try to put the obvious traits into a positive light. There was only one Italian woman in the world that would (lovingly) cuff the back of my head at supper time when she would say; "Mangi! Mangi!" (Eat! Eat!) She started demanding royalties when she saw how often I used that trait...! But any trait that would not be seen as loving, I would suggest using exceedingly cautiously.

I wish to Heaven that the 'It Gets Better Project' had been available 50 years ago. Perhaps I would not have spent a week in coma after downing several bottles of pills. What a wonderful thing these people have done - speaking publicly, wow. Courage, grace, intelligence, and love; not bad examples to set!