Jimmies or Chocolate Sprinkles?

From Boston.com:

Even before that tale got abroad, jimmies was trailing clouds of factoid and fancy. Its origins are murky, so — like “the whole nine yards” and “the real McCoy” — it attracts just-so stories, some plausible and some less so. At the “Boston English” section of the website UniversalHub, commenters will tell you that jimmies are named for the Jimmy Fund, the children’s cancer charity; for a kid named Jimmy who got them on his ice cream as a birthday treat (“they’re Jimmy’s”); for a mayor named Jim Conelson, or a Jimmy O’Connell who was extra generous with sprinkles; and for a guy who (maybe) ran the chocolate-sprinkles machine at the Just Born candy factory.

Of all these theories, only the last is even remotely plausible. Just Born, the candy company that still provides us with our marshmallow Peeps and Mike and Ikes, was founded in Brooklyn in 1923, according to its official history, though patriarch Sam Born had already come up with candy innovations like a machine to put sticks into lollipops.

The company’s website claims that “jimmies, the chocolate grains sprinkled on ice cream, were invented at Just Born, and named after the employee who made them.” (Company spokesmen have mentioned a Jimmy Bartholomew, but his existence is unverified.) But company histories often include a fudge factor, and this claim of invention seems dubious: Chocolate sprinkles, so called, were already popular in the 1920s, the newspaper archives show. The Nashua, N.H., Telegraph is advertising a treat made with chocolate sprinkles in 1921, before Just Born was born.

Rest of the story: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/03/13/the_jimmies_story/

Wicked good, awesome, bad, and indifferent

Recent article about the current use of "wicked" in New England including these thoughts on its history:


Why wicked to begin with? Page explained that he often uses it, saying something was “wicked good,” or “wicked cool.” And since he specialized in distressed finishes, he thought of “wicked old.” “My logo used to have a little witch going through it,” he said.

The word often is used as a substitute for “very” or “really,” providing emphasis to another word.

“Given the kind of religious and Puritan past of New England, oftentimes there was a kind of social disapproval of using curse words,” said professor David Watters, director of the Center for New England Culture at the University of New Hampshire. “So, you’d get a lot of creative, non-cursing, and I think ‘wicked’ fell into that category. Sometimes you hear people say ‘hellish’ instead of ‘wicked.’ ”

Watters said he believes the expression originated in Northern New England and became more popular throughout the rest of New England in the last 20 years or so.

New Englanders ‘wicked’ cool with their word
http://www.telegram.com/article/20110221/NEWS/102210365/1052

Spose - Can't Get There From Here 

Love this song - had to share. Go check them out.

From http://www.pdank.com/v2/


Thursday, January 20, 2011

[verse 1]

with no rims on the whip and no collagen lips

i rip through the state of Maine with the halogens lit

i'm not Rick but i spit Slick

i'm raping and making the fakest of rappers who're thinking they're sinking my ship quit quick

ALL ABOARD

from the state where they think we all mate

with our cousins with no indoor plumbing

moose by the bakers dozen

we got lakes, ponds, deer on lawns

puff upon chron' rockin' long johns

spat verses over purchased thirty racks of beer

made peers laugh and cheer

throw your hands up in the atmosphere

cuz everybody knows my name like the cast of cheers

but they say i shouldn't rap from here: i made it finally

puffed all kinda leaves

wack rapper, time to leave

rhyme's sick, lyme disease

pine trees, skate rails

while mostly white trophy wifes rock fake nails at bake sales

and all the haters say

[chorus]

are you out of your brain?!?!

rapping from maine??!?!

you must be insane!

cuz you can't get there from here

or delusional

please quit the beats

and retreat to the cubicle

you can't get there from here

you must've lost your mind!

i mean, those rhymes:

they were fine for the time

but you can't get there from here

you're from the eastern-most, northern-most, boredom-soaked state

you can't be great

you can't get there from here

[verse 2]

i'm from where teenage moms and their babies dwell

where people downgrade from cocaine to oxy pills

where the wives get beat and no one hears them yell

and it's not compton or brooklyn or ATL

we spend most times weeded

cuz the coastline's scenic

but the chances of succeeding are slimmer than a bulimic

still i put my life in rhyme form and recorded it

on my debut and stayed true to my coordinates

no, never aborted it

ask my subordinates

since back when my weed had more seeds than tournaments

i'm going for the gold (as if that wasn't obvious)

and stopping spose? that's like tryna handcuff an octopus.

woke up every morning wrote a new verse

even if i wasn't winning i wasn't a loser

look if you want to excel like huge shirts

doesn't matter what your zipcode is, just do work

[chorus]

[verse 3]

they say you can't get theya from heya without magic

well POOF! i Google Maps'd it. i'm there, maxin'.

i-i-i seen em laughing now i'm the Maine attraction

and when i die, they'll pour out all their Pabst in my absence

steered off course fuck your path i'm the

Captain Crunch time all day, serial with my actions

no need for Lucky Charms just a bit of passion

to make it from where Frosted Flakes fall to relaxin'

yeah i fooled fools, used Trix on silly rabbits

did it just for Kix when I started out rapping

and I grew up in Maine so they said, "It'll never happen."

but we got the alphabet, too, and i'm nasty:

coming to kill it abilities some of the illest they

ever did see and they love it. they haven't a crumb of my skill and i'm sonning the dumbest of villains (i'm cunning) i stomached the summit no vomiting from it, above all the beef and the killing and bluffing, i'm bigger than something to bump when you're drunk and you're puffing your stuff. call me Spose.

[chorus]

or so they say

to my cam groves

stiky-1

f4

and to them motherfuckin Educated Advocates

keep keep on

to lab 7

luch and eliza

just keep keep on

to my man foodstamp

keep keep on and on and on and on

New words!

Here is our suggestion


"Skun up"
v. " He fell down and his knees got all skun up"

Stoved up
v. When damage is done to your car.


Liz and Holly, Thomaston Maine

Just a couple of college students getting a kick out of your list =)

I do still exist...

I'm still having problems with my Charter email (need to investigate more) so until then, feel free to post suggestions here or to lorilady_at_gmail_dot _com.

Hope those of you that find this blog and the subsequent website, do enjoy it. I also recommend trying to track down a copy of:

John Gould's Maine Lingo from 1975

I would love to help do a next edition some day (maybe when I do not have a full-time job and the kids are in college!).

~Lori

Sorry - suggestions...

I had not checked my email box for quite some time {sigh} and it looks like all the mail was lost in there.

If you have sent me an email recently, please re-send with any suggestions you have for the Mainah Glossary.

Even better, just post a comment here!

LL Bean is bringing back my favorite sweater!

Blog posts:

Number 1

Number 2

And the one that started it all!


Yeah!!

Not entirely on topic but still...

I agree with this reporter's opinion. As someone who has visited Boston all her life and lived there for 6 years, I don't see the Big Dig in as negative a light as many other people. I also toured the Big Dig site twice before it was opened - absolutely amazing engineering project.

Yes, it was expensive but picture Boston today without it. I don't want to...

Apr 9, 2009

Big Dig and other marvels

Albert B. Southwick
The three most impressive engineering achievements in Massachusetts history are:

No.1. The railroad from Boston through Worcester to Albany, completed in 1842. It opened up New England to trade from the west via the Erie Canal and ensured that this region would not wither on the economic vine.

No.2. The construction of the Quabbin Reservoir and aqueduct, completed in 1937. The 25-mile aqueduct, dug mostly through solid rock, sometimes 600 feet below ground, is the size of a subway tunnel and is a gigantic siphon that daily sucks 600 million gallons of water uphill from the Quabbin Reservoir to the Ware River diversion and then downhill to the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton from which it is distributed to Greater Boston. It ensures that eastern Massachusetts (and Chicopee) will have enough water for centuries.

No.3. The Big Dig, Despite all the horror stories, it rates as the most complex and brilliant engineering project in Massachusetts history and has turned Boston from a dingy, traffic-clogged nightmare into a modern city with a bright future.

The Big Dig has become a symbol of waste, fraud, runaway costs and tragic blunders, which is too bad. Its long-term benefits vastly outweigh all those negatives. Despite its inexcusable cost overruns, it already is lowering expenses for commuters traveling through Boston by millions of dollars a year and is reducing air pollution by an estimated 14 percent.

In 1995, the Central Artery, an ugly, rusting eyesore, and the two old tunnels to East Boston were carrying 168,000 cars a day. The idea of putting all that traffic underground was daunting. Many of Boston’s building foundations are below sea level. Much of downtown Boston sits on thousands of tons of fill of questionable stability. And its underground is laced with utility lines, sewer pipes, water mains, and subway supports. It seemed hopeless. But Fred Salvucci, then working for the Dukakis administration, was convinced that it could be done, and he proved persuasive. Design planning began in the 1990s.

The actual construction over the years has been done despite staggering difficulties. Thousands of cubic yards of clay, fill and gravel had to be excavated and carted away. Much of the old utility complex underground had to be rebuilt. Meantime, the old Central Artery had to continue carrying its daily load of 100,000-plus vehicles, and the two old tunnels were loaded to safe capacity and beyond. But when it finally opened, it moved Boston into a sparkling new era.

With the help of Holly Sutherland of the Mass Turnpike’s public relations office, I undertook an estimate of what the big project means and will mean to Boston and eastern Massachusetts. In 1995, the Central Artery and the two old tunnels were carrying about 168,000 vehicles daily. By 2005, the Big Dig and the Ted Williams Tunnel were carrying about 207,000. Average speed through Boston had increased from 13 to 36 miles per hour, which meant that the average motorist probably saved a half hour or more and possibly a half gallon of gas. That would add up to 100,000 hours of time and 100,000 gallons of gas saved daily.

One estimate concluded that the new complex, by reducing traffic delays and accidents, saves $500 million a year. In 10 years, that would add up to $5 billion. But that is only part of the story. Had Boston done nothing, according to estimates, traffic on the Central Artery would have ground to a crawl 16 hours a day. Boston’s neighborhoods would have endured a miserable era of traffic strangulation and air pollution.

The quality of life in Boston will be notably improved and has been already. The noisy, ugly barrier that divided Boston is gone. The daily torrent of more than 200,000 vehicles and their pollution has been removed from the city streets. Neighborhoods have been reconnected. More than 260 acres of surface have been reclaimed for park, recreation, memorial and other purposes.

Fred Salvucci, who had so much to do with the idea and launch of the Big Dig, has had no connection with it for years. Wondering what his thoughts were now, I called him at his office at MIT, where he is a research professor of transportation logistics.

He said that he is impressed by some of the brilliant engineering that was done on the Big Dig, but also appalled by some of the fraud and shoddy work, such as what led to a fatal roof collapse of a tunnel entrance. But he has no doubts as to the big project’s long-term value to Boston and eastern Massachusetts.

“Just try to imagine what Boston would be like if nothing had been done,” he remarked.

The Boston to Albany Railroad, the Quabbin Reservoir and Aqueduct, the Big Dig: sometimes it pays off to think big.

Albert B. Southwick’s column appears regularly in the Telegram & Gazette.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090409/COLUMN21/904090620/-1/OPINION

Article: Colloquialisms abound, A to Z

Some day I would like to read the Dictionary of American Regional English. Until then, I will have to look into what these amazing people are doing:

Monday, March 23, 2009

Colloquialisms abound, A to Z

Regional expressions go native

By Ryan J. Foley THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADISON, Wis. — If you don’t know a stone toter from Adam’s off ox, or aren’t sure what a grinder shop sells, the Dictionary of American Regional English is for you.

The collection of regional words and phrases is beloved by linguists and authors and used as a reference in professions as diverse as acting and police work. And now, after five decades of wide-ranging research that sometimes got word-gatherers run out of suspicious small towns, the job is almost finished.

The dictionary team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is nearing completion of the final volume, covering “S” to “Z.” A new federal grant will help the volume get published next year, joining the first four volumes already in print.

“It will be a huge milestone,” said editor Joan Houston Hall.

The dictionary chronicles words and phrases used in distinct regions. Maps show where a submarine sandwich might be called a hero or grinder, or where a potluck — as in a potluck dinner or supper — might be called a pitch-in (Indiana) or a scramble (northern Illinois).

It’s how Americans do talk, not how they should talk.

“It’s one of the great American scholarly activities and people will be reading it for a century learning about the roots of the American language,” said William Safire, who frequently cites the dictionary in his “On Language” column in The New York Times Magazine. “It shows the richness and diversity of our language.”

Doctors have used it to communicate with patients and investigators have referred to it in efforts to identify criminals, including the Unabomber. Dialect coaches in Hollywood and on Broadway have used the dictionary’s audio recordings of regional speakers to train actors.

Author Tom Wolfe has called the dictionary “my favorite reading.”

In awarding the two-year, $295,000 grant that will get the final volume into print, National Science Foundation reviewers called the dictionary “one of the most visible public faces of linguistics,” and a “national treasure.”

The concept dates to 1889, when the American Dialect Society was formed. But the project did not start in earnest until 1965, when English professor Frederic Cassidy dispatched workers to 1,000 carefully chosen U.S. communities to interview residents and make audio recordings of their speech.

Workers often slept in “word wagons” — vans emblazoned with the UW logo — and even were chased out of a few Southern towns. The field work alone took five years and collected 2.5 million different words and phrases.

Since then, linguists have painstakingly researched the words using print materials to decide which should be included. The dictionary project has about a dozen workers and a $750,000 annual budget.

Cassidy died in 2000, still looking toward publication of the final volume. His tombstone reads: “On to Z!”

Hall, who has worked at the dictionary since 1975 and been editor since 2000, said the complete series of five volumes published by Harvard University Press will contain about 75,000 entries.

Draft entries for the final volume are still being reviewed. During a recent visit to their offices at UW-Madison’s English department, one was tracing the history of the word “stone toter,” a type of fish found in parts of the eastern U.S.

After the final volume is published, the next phase of the project will be to put the dictionary online. Hall envisions an online edition that will be updated constantly.

Hall said her all-time favorite word is bobbasheely, used in Gulf Coast states as a noun meaning a good friend or as a verb meaning to hang around with a friend. It comes from the language of the Choctaw tribes.

Two people interviewed in Texas and Alabama in the 1960s used the word. Further digging revealed that Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner had once used it in a novel, and it was used in the early 19th century by a colleague of former vice president and duelist Aaron Burr.

The dictionary has occasionally been put to serious use.

Forensic linguist Roger Shuy said he occasionally referred to the dictionary when he studied the Unabomber’s writings in the 1990s for clues to the writer’s identity. His profile didn’t help catch Ted Kaczynski, but it turned out to be pretty accurate: He guessed the Unabomber had a doctorate, grew up near Chicago and was older than some investigators initially believed.

Hall also was sought for help by reporters who didn’t understand President Bill Clinton’s comment in 1993 that an Air Force official who had criticized him “doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox.”

Hall said the phrase is used west of the Appalachians in place of the more popular “he doesn’t know me from Adam.” The “off ox” refers to one of the two oxen once used to plow fields.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090323/NEWS/903230337/1160/SPECIALSECTIONS04&source=rss

What American accent do you have?

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Supposedly mine is from the West.

I guess a combo of growing up in Maine, living in Boston, London, DC, and CT! I've become "neutral!"

Ah, winter in the country...

Dear Diary:

Aug. 12 - Moved into our new home in Maine. It is so beautiful here. The hills and river valleys are so picturesque. I have a beautiful old oak tree in my front yard. Can hardly wait to see the change in the seasons. This is truly God's Country.

Oct. 14 - Maine is such a gorgeous place to live, one of the real special places on Earth. The leaves are turning a multitude of different colors. I love all of the shades of reds, oranges and yellows, they are so bright. I want to walk through all of the beautiful hills and spot some white tail deer. They are so graceful; certainly they must be the most peaceful creatures on Earth. This must be paradise.

Nov. 11 - Deer season opens this week. I can't imagine why anyone would want to shoot these elegant animals. They are the very symbol of peace and tranquility here in Maine. I hope it snows soon. I love it here!

Dec. 2 - It snowed last night. I woke to the usual wonderful sight: everything covered in a beautiful blanket of white. The oak tree is magnificent. It looks like a postcard. We went out and swept the snow from the steps and driveway. The air is so crisp, clean and refreshing. We had a snowball fight. I won, and the snowplow came down the street. He must have gotten too close to the driveway because we had to go out and shovel the end of the driveway again. What a beautiful place. Nature in harmony. I love it here!

Dec. 12 - More snow last night. I love it! The plow did his cute little trick again. What a rascal. A winter wonderland I love it here!

Dec. 19 - More snow - couldn't get out of the driveway to get to work in time. I'm exhausted from all of the shoveling. And that snowplow!

Dec. 21 - More of that white sh*t coming down. I've got blisters on my hands and a kink in my back. I think that the snowplow driver waits around the corner until I'm done shoveling the driveway. *sshole.

Dec. 25 - White Christmas? More freakin' snow. If I ever get my hands on the sonofab*tch who drives that snowplow, I swear I'll castrate him. And why don't they use more salt on these roads to melt this crap??

Dec. 28 - It hasn't stopped snowing since Christmas. I have been inside since then, except of course when that SOB "Snowplow Harry" comes by. Can't go anywhere, cars are buried up to the windows. Weather man says to expect another 10 inches. Do you have any idea how many shovelfuls 10 inches is??

Jan. 1 - Happy New Year? The way it's coming down it won't melt until the 4th of July! The snowplow got stuck down the road and the sh*thead actually had the balls to come and ask to borrow a shovel! I told him I'd broken 6 already this season.

Jan. 4 - Finally got out of the house. We went to the store to get some food and a god*mn deer ran out in front of my car and I hit the bastard. It did $3,000 in damage to the car. Those beasts ought to be killed. The hunters should have a longer season if you ask me.

Jan. 27 - Warmed up a little and rained today. The rain turned the snow into ice and the weight of it broke the main limb of the oak tree in the front yard and it went through the roof. I should have cut that old piece of sh*t into fireplace wood when I had the chance.

May 23 - Took my car to the local garage. Would you believe the whole underside of the car is rusted away from all of that d*mn salt they dump on the road? Car looks like a bashed up, heap of rusted cow sh*t.

May 10 - Sold the car, the house, and moved to Florida. I can't imagine why anyone in their freakin' mind would ever want to live in the G0d forsaken State of Maine.

A YouTube video you can't miss...

I'll admit it - I'm not a fan of YouTube. I've probably seen less than 6 videos on YouTube but this one you have to watch. Priceless.

Maine Man Song

See - aren't you glad you watched it? And now it will be stuck in your head the rest of the day. You're Welcome!!

- L.

Can't get there from here

Album mocked Maine ways

By Jerry Harkavy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Maine— Some of the classic lines that define Maine humor emerged 50 years ago, on a record made by two Yale University students in a dormitory room.

Uttered in exaggerated Down East accents, the exchanges between Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan on the “Bert and I” album inspired generations of storytellers both in-state and beyond, including the likes of Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegone fame.

Some of Dodge and Bryan’s bone-dry punch lines remain familiar even today.


Summer tourist to Mainer: “Which way to Millinocket?” After considering and then rejecting a few possible routes, the native concludes, “Come to think of it, you can’t get there from here.”

Then there’s the day 85-year-old Arnold Bunker “from Bailey Island way” appears in court. Asked if he’d lived there all his life, he replies: “Not yet.”

Maine’s Islandport Press has marked the 50th anniversary of “Bert and I” by putting out a CD that features 34 stories compiled from Dodge and Bryan’s four albums, a concert appearance by Dodge and a public television special.

Though neither was from Maine, Dodge and Bryan were familiar with the state and its people and had a keen ear for dialect, along with a knack for low-tech sound effects. Their first recording, made in their dorm room at Yale University, featured a wastebasket as an echo chamber.

They made 50 copies for friends and family members, then pressed 50 more.

Dodge died in 1982 in a hit-and-run crash while bicycling in Hawaii.

Bryan, a divinity student who went on to be ordained as an Episcopal priest, is a bush pilot, at 77, with the Quebec Labrador Foundation, a nonprofit he founded nearly 50 years ago.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20081111/NEWS/811110501

Okay, this one is a little off-topic...

But I had to share...

Fake cop pulls gun after stopping federal agent

Police say a 21-year-old Portland man used a blue portable strobe light to pull over a car on Forest Avenue, then pulled a shotgun when approached by the off-duty federal agent he had stopped.

Andrew J. Chaisson faces charges of impersonating an officer and criminal threatening with a gun following the 11 p.m. incident Monday.

The federal agent told police a man in a black 2007 Chevrolet pickup activated a blue strobe light and pulled him over on Outer Forest Avenue.

The truck then backed into a driveway, squealing its tires. The agent became suspicious and was approaching the truck on foot, when the driver threatened him with a shotgun, police said.

The suspect fled in the truck but the agent got the license plate number, a vanity plate "ACE HI."

Police went to Chaisson's home where he was arrested and a shotgun was confiscated, police said.

Police said they have no similar reports of someone impersonating an officer.
Police say that unmarked cars are used for traffic enforcement but typically have multiple blue lights built into the car's grill and have laptop computers and radar visible in the cab. Officers are in uniform.

Police say motorists being pulled over by an unmarked car should stop in a well-lit, well-traveled area if possible and may call 911 to confirm that a bona fide officer is stopping them. If the officer is not in uniform, the motorist should ask that a uniformed officer also respond.

Please go to the article for a picture and comments which, of course, are priceless...

I know...I know...

I'm a terrible blogger...Sorry!

Here is a "recent" email (is July considered recent?):

How about Maine villages…….

Yahoo village is a group of houses in Poland. There are numerous vehicles without hoods, many appliances on the lawns and deer hanging from different trees throughout the neighborhood. People often seen with Budweiser, Marlboros and fat @ss in a glass.

Bog Hoot refers to all of Mechanic Falls. The local snowmobile club goes by the name of “The Bog Hooters”.

Submitted by T. from Lewiston by the sea - Biddeford

Words, words, words...

Keep them coming!

These are from Chris in Jefferson, ME:

‘bout

Adv., About: “That theyah fellah jus’ ‘bout got stove up.” Also see “ ’magine”


Cussed

Pronunciation \kuss–ed\
Adj., Cursed or obstinate. – “That dang deeyah run right’out front of the cah, and I jus’ ‘bout nailed the cussed thing.”
Also cantankerous.


Friggin’

Adj., Used to add a great deal of emphasis. “that powah fellah thumped himself with that theyah hammah pretty friggin’ hahd.” To which one could reply “Friggin’ ‘magine!” (see ‘magine)

Friggin’ skiddah: (see skidder) A terminology often used to describe a stout, or sometimes poorly thought of large woman.


‘magine

v., Imagine: Used as an affirmative agreement, or an affirmation to someone’s statement. “D’you see the size of that theyah lobstah?”, “friggin’ ’magine.”

“ ‘bout ‘magine” is used to agree with hypothetical ponderings, “I bet that cah was doin’ a buck twenty easy!” (Translated: I assume that you agree with me that the automobile that passed us previously on the highway was traveling at a velocity that I could easily assume was in excess of 120 mph.) “’bout magine!” (Translated: I can only imagine that the statement you just made is an accurate guesstimation given the circumstances surrounding the situation.”

More thoughts on Allen's Coffee Brandy...

Mmm...I love coffee!!

From Graham:

Allen's Coffee Brandy

aka: 'fat ass in a glass,' 'Champagne of Maine,' 'gorilla milk,' In northern and central Maine, Allen's is jokingly referred to as ''the flower of the tundra.''

'Liquid Leg Spreader'
Scale ingredients to servings
4 oz Allen's® coffee brandy
4 oz whole milk
Stir ingredients together in a highball glass half-filled with ice cubes, and serve.

Coffee is extremely popular throughout New England. People in Maine love coffee and products with a genuine, pronounced coffee flavor. Allen’s probably has the truest coffee taste. Coffee liqueurs and some other coffee flavored brandies tend to be sweet, Allen’s focuses on the coffee flavor not additional sweetness. Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy uses a natural extract from Brazilian coffee beans.

People in Maine have found that Allen’s CFB makes the perfect sombrero. Sombreros were first made with coffee brandy, sombreros made with coffee liqueurs came later. Consumers may also consider Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy to be a great value as opposed to imported coffee liqueurs.

Allen’s CFB is proud to be the number one spirit in Maine. Allen’s CFB appreciates having some of the most loyal customers in the world. Allen’s CFB customers span generations and the product has crossed all regions of the state from fishing villages to downtown Portland.

More emails...

Thanks to all that keep emailing me!

I'll get to a glossary update at some point! (:

L.

New word:
innerestin - pretty intersting (from J. - 12th generation Mainah!)

New websites:
http://www.wickedgoodmaine.com/
http://maineliving.blogspot.com/

And a great email:

I'd love to add anothah definishun for "spider" or "spidah" -- Lobstah.

Also, the "green front" was the local likker stoah, from the green paint on the front. Coahss, that 'twas befoah Hannafohd and Shaw-uz stahted sellin' the stuff.

Seriously, I used to have to teach my Mainer students (7th-8th graders in Oakland) how to talk Yankee. I'd have spelling lessons and grammar lessons on the board, because they were actually losing the dialect. One of the rules of spelling was that if a syllable ended with "r" it should be replaced with "h." Almost always wohked. Oh, and any one syllable wohd could be pronounced in either 1, 2 or 3 syllables, as in "good", "goo-ahd" or "goo-wad-ah"

Now that I'm retired and living in Kentucky, I find myself saying "you-all" much of the time, though when people, especially women, say "Y'all have a naahce day, hun" I still find myself responding with "A-yuh."

Mike D. Formerly of Oakland/Waterville, now in Parksville, KY

Go Pats!

Not specifically relating to Maine (taken on Rt. 1 by Logan) but had to share...

L.

Vote results...

Way-back-when I posted a poll:

http://mainahglossary.blogspot.com/2006/12/time-to-vote.html

67% voted for Ay-yuh - I will change the entry next time I do an update.

L.