What’re Words For, Part 17

It’s been a couple of weeks, it seems, since I’ve gotten a Yankee vocabulary lesson to you all. However, the last one, the usage of the letter “R”, was an important one, and I felt you all needed to time to just absorb the information from that, ayuh.

This week’s word is another “R” word, but has to do with living it up.

Word: Ramming (V.)
Definition: On the town
“Al’s not coming to work today?”
“No, called in sick. He was ramming around all last night and won’t be worth nawthin’ this morning.”

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

And wouldn’t you know it? I can use that word in a sentence! Here goes:

I will be ramming around New York City as I rock out to THE CODES at the Knitting Factory tonight. Hope to see you there, chummies.

Did Somebody Lose Their Dick?

I have seen many things during my walks through Philadelphia. Mostly, I've seen trash. Beer cans. Plastic grocery bags. Thousands of cigarette butts. Chicken wing bones. Soda bottles. Dead pigeons. A lot of stuff. A vast majority of the people who live in Philadelphia use the streets as their very own personal trash can.

However, on my walk home from work today, I saw this on the sidewalk:

That's right. A big green vibrator. What was going through the mind of the person who bought a green dildo? "Hmmm....I think I'd like to fantasize about getting boned by the Grinch!"

I just don't know what else to say, except someone is going to be VERY lonely tonight.....

New Years Day Disc Golf

Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks since New Years Day 2007 passed us by. I’m delinquent in putting up this post about the event I attended that day. Here it is, finally.

As I have mentioned before, I am a disc (Frisbee) golfer. I have been disc golfing since March of 1994, and have been a part of the Friends of Sedgley Woods Disc Golf Club since moving to Philly in March of 1995. This is a great group of people who disc golf in Philly and maintain the course, located in the Sedgley Woods section of Fairmount Park.

A little history about Sedgley Woods. In March of 1977, Jim Powers and a group of dedicated disc golfers and Frisbee-sport fans were able to install the Sedgley Woods disc golf course, and it has been intact since that time. This March will mark 30 years of disc golf in Philadelphia. On the first New Years day that occurred after the course was put in, that would be January 1, 1978, the disc golfers had the first of what would eventually become an annual tradition. Since that time, a New Years Day disc golf tournament has been held at Sedgley Woods every year. This year marked the 29th Annual New Years Day Tourney. For me, it was my 11th one in a row.

This turns out to be the best tournament held at the course every year. Everyone who shows up is hung over, still drunk, or still drinking. Most everyone who plays in this event has no vision of the winning the tourney, they’re just happy to be out playing disc golf with their great group of friends. There is always a group of people who set up grills, heating trays, gas stoves, and pump out food all day long. This year, the cooks were serving up breakfast: scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, English muffins, and quiche. For lunch, there were two huge trays of Buffalo wings, and a big pan of meatballs and an enormous cheese/cracker tray. As the golfers were making their way back in after the one round tournament, they found that still more food was being served, including roasted pork, roast beef, and much much more.

This year, the weather was warm (mid 50s), but it ended up raining most of the day. Sometimes it was just a drizzle, but nobody cared about the weather. 115 people showed up to play in the New Years tourney this year! Though not the record (last year, in beautiful weather, 150 or so showed up), it was still impressive based on the less than stellar weather.

As I am moving back to Maine in July of this year, this year’s New Years Day tourney will be the last one I can attend. Sad? A little. The people within the Sedgley Woods disc golf club and the surrounding disc golf courses are some of the greatest people I have ever met, and I will miss them, and disc golfing with them when I leave Philly. But, I did golf with “the group” this year. “The Group” is a core of 4 of us who have been in the same group for the last 6 years. AK, JC, DC, and myself, have golfed on New Years Day together since January of 2001. For the past 3 years, CP has been permanent in the group and we always add a couple more on the day of the tourney.

So, while most people stayed home with their significant others on New Years Day after having spent the previous night drinking and bringing in the New Year with lots of “banging”, and others just didn’t get out of bed due to the after effects of too much alcohol on this second-most overrated holiday of the year (the most overrated? The night before Thanksgiving…aka Amateur Night. New Years Eve = amateur night, part deux), there was a dedicated bunch of us who once again migrated to the disc golf course at Sedgley Woods in Philadelphia, and played a round of disc golf. It was absolutely awesome.

Work, Work, Work

Hi Porkers! It's been a bit since I've posted, but I have good reasons. On January 2, I started a new job, and I've been spending time learning my new position. I took a job with a national health insurance company, and have been getting into the new work routine. But first, a little background for you.

I have the opportunity to buy my grandparent's house in my hometown of Orono, Maine. My grandfather passed away in 2002, and my grandmother one year before him. In the time since their deaths, my dad and his brothers/sisters have kept the house, and they have let family members live there. Now, they are ready to let the house go, and were ready to put it on the market, when I stepped in. As a family member, I can buy the house for $50,000! That's right. $50,000. Now, it needs some work done to it, first and foremost a foundation needs to be installed under the entire house.

I currently live in Philadelphia, so moving back to Maine will be a big deal. I've been rooted in Philly since March of 1995 (coming up on 12 years), so I have settled in quite nicely to the area. I have made a lot of friends within Philadelphia and its suburbs, including many close people from the Lehigh Valley (Allentown, PA) area. It will not be easy to leave here. But the decision to move back to Maine was easy. Philadelphia is a city without a direction. The mayor and city council spend their time bickering, the corruption within City Hall is pretty much out of control, the taxes are close to the highest in the nation, the highway system is a wreck and can't accomodate the number of people who drive, and worst of all, the murder rate for Philly was over 404 people last year, and already in this new year of 2007, at least 15 people have been killed (as of this post, which was written on January 17). I always knew that I'd head back to Maine someday, and now is the right time. I'm buying the house in May, and will be moving back in early July once the foundation has been put in and I can move into the house.

Which brings me back to my new job. It is located in Center City Philadelphia, about 2.5 miles from my house. No more public transportation as I have been walking to and from work each day. (Combined with my strict dieting for the new year, combined with the walking, I have lost 13 pounds so far!!) By being closer to home, I've also been able to claim back about 2 hours of my day that I no longer have to use for traveling.

Now, my old job was awesome. Although I had to take public transportation daily to and from the job (45-55 minutes each way!!), I really loved the work I did with my previous employer. And best of all, the people I worked with there were phenomenal. I had a great time working with all of them, and found my leaving that job to be the hardest job change I've ever gone through. I actually left a job I liked for the first time in my professional career. The biggest reason why I had to leave the old job in order to begin the new one is this: with the new job, when I move back to Maine, I can do this job from home. FROM HOME! IN MAINE! So, now I will be going back to Maine with a job instead of moving back and having to go look for one.

As I look forward to my impending move back to Maine, I do it with some sadness. I have many close friends in the Philly area, and leaving their presence will be difficult. There are so many people who have made my time in Philly so appreciated that I know I'll be a blubbering baby when it comes time to leave.

The good news, of course, is that they'll all have a place to stay when they come up to Maine on their next visit!

What’re Words For, Part 16

Time for you all to REALLY get the feel of the Maine accent. You all know, by now, about the drawl associated with the letter (lett-ah) “R”. Here’s the explanation:


Word: R
Pronunciation Note:
The first rule is to replace the final “r” (or “re”) with something close to “ah” or “uh”. Thus, “there” becomes “thay-uh”, “near” becomes “ne-uh”, and so forth.

The second rule is to add the final “r” to those given names appearing to lack them – e.g. “Lucinda” becomes “Lucinder”, “Amanda” becomes “Amander”, “Augusta” (the State Capital) becomes “Auguster”, etc.

The third rule, which is restricted to Aroostook County (the largest and most Northern county in the State of Maine), is to disregard the first two rules because therre, the morre “r”’s the betterr.

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)


And it’s most funny when Rules One and Two are applied to the same word. An example of this is when “Martha” becomes “Mah-ther”.

Keep studying everybody, your dialects are coming along just fine, ayuh.

Happy New Year!

Here's a late wish for you all to have a very successful and fantastic new year. The beginning of each year gives us the opportunity to sluff the garbage that permeated our lives in the previous year, and the chance to set goals both personally and professionaly. Of course, one must first shake off the hangover from the night before....THEN you can start with all that other stuff I just mentioned.

For me, if I can figure out how Sar did that "Caption Contest", I may continue it in her honor here at TFKoP. Give me a little time, and I'll let you know my progress.