Grating Accents
 

It's Coke. Get it right.

-T(off caffeine, but really could go for a Coke right now - maybe a Dr. Pepper)L

Out of (the) Pocket
 

I'm guilty of using this expression to mean "out of the office," and will henceforth stop. I could defend it thusly though: If I'm out of pocket during normal work hours, it probably means I'm over at Commerce playing 6-12 holdem, which means I'm likely to be out of pocket about $200-$400 if I don't hit my flops, make some good laydowns and catch that boat coming down the river. Or else I'm over at Griffith Park playing the Wilson or Harding courses, which means I'm out of pocket $21, + $11 more if I rent a cart.

Unrelated Sports Guy Note: The Sports Guy reports today that the last 9 NBA Finals have been won by a team with Robert Horry or Steve Kerr on the roster. Go Spurs. (TSG is picking the Nets though, mostly because he thinks Kidd is liable to play better than Tim Duncan, Duncan can get sketchy at the free throw line and when he does that, his whole game goes south, and K-Mart is the "most likely to step up and be the decisive factor" if the 2 studs cancel each other out).

str8

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

I'm confused. In my experience, Americans say pocketbook when they mean handbag, not when they mean ladies' wallet, as in the womens' equivalent to a billfold, that is, the thing in which you stash your driver's license and currency.

But I am from the much maligned Long Island, so take it for what it's worth.

Accentuate the Negative
 

But if they're hanging their stockings by the chimbley and eating roast beast, then they've been reading to much Dr. Suess.

Out of (the) Pocket
 

I always thought it was related to "having someone in your pocket": i.e.: having someone in your control, such as a bought politician. So someone out of your control (in this case, unreachable to be made to comment or sign) is "out of pocket."

Football analogy makes sense, too, but I hear this used by men and women both.

Accentuate the Negative
 

I actually use that one, but in an intentionally humorous way. Like strategery or irregardless. Supposably is a Joey from Friends thing.

They are actually holding a news conference on the Stewart indictment. You can watch it live on MSNBC if you are so inclined.


Since when did we start holding press conferences every time someone famous (or involved with a famous case) gets indicted or arrested? Did that start with OJ or was it common before?

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

It could mean that. There is a woman I work with that uses the term to refer to her wallet. Maybe she is misusing it.

(Come to think of it - she is also from Long Island. Go figure.)

Grating Accents
 

I'm saying sometimes I can pick out seattlites. Dunno why, really, but I think the proximity to Vancouver sometimes shows in the accents. The ones I pick out are freaked out, too - though I've only done it when abroad.

accents
 

If you just say "It seems like fucking everyone says this shit." you both avoid possible misuse of a word and get to be a potty-mouth.

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

Pocketbook=purse=handbag.

But now that you have me thinking about it...pocketbook is a stupid word for something that holds your wallet/checkbook/glasses. As I recall it's an older term that was used more for the clutch type purses. Maybe your coworker has a clutch/wallet and she calls it a pocketbook. Is she old?

25th Hour
 

I dissent. 25th Hour was a below average motion picture. 1) Where was the interesting explanation/plot twist about who tipped off the cops? Oh that's right, there wasn't one. Zzzzzzz.
2) The stakes aren't really high enough. 'If I go into prison being so good looking, someone's gonna take my be-hymen.' Well, you're not that good looking anyway, and though prison-rape is obviously an awful thing, I just don't think that the fear of it is a great enough force to justify everyone's behaving the way they do. 3) If he's that good looking now, he's going to be good looking when the bruises heal in a few days. Dumb-ass.

On the other hand, Anna Paquin is just too fine for words. And that redeems all, n'est-ce pas?

Out of (the) Pocket
 

I personally call it a Handbag.

According to sites via google, "out of pocket" [meaning unavailable] started about 25 years ago in (of all places) the Southwest.

not7yS

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

Definitions of pocketbook include purse, handbag, and "flat folding case for money or personal papers that can be carried in a pocket or handbag," but I have never heard anybody use it in the last sense. Maybe she is a transplant? Does she end her sentences with "at"?

Some of my word usage may not be typical of Long Island, because my mother was European and English was her third language.

Edited to add I know European sounds silly, but her ethnicity is well-known in my office and combined with my regular but unintentional off-board use of "recockulous" and "timmy," I'm worried that my habit will become known.

When the DAs/US attys/etc. realized that tv could be used to enhance political careers?

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

First you had pocket books, which were literally books that fit in the pocket. Then you had pocketbooks, small cases that looked like books, or were at least shaped like books, that fit in the pocket. They normally belonged to men. At some point it began to cover a small bag carried by women in which they placed their belongings. And it just stuck I imagine.

Maybe it was because they were wearing Mariner shirts?

But no, people from Vancouver sound like they're from Vancouver eh? NO ONE in Seattle says Zed or eh. And if they say Warshington - they're from eastern Oregon.

Ah the great Zed debate. I've seen flame wars start over whether the letter is pronounced Zed or Zee. Of course, the Commonwealthians are wrong. But it's cute to watch them try and argue the point.

25th Hour
 

1) You missed the explanation? It was the big Eastern European (Russian?) guy who was his buddy for most of the movie. At the end, the other mobsters give Monty the chance to kill him.

2) I think that those stakes are pretty high, and the point is that this is a guy who have never been in trouble, never done time, etc. He's just dealing wholesale and gets caught once. So, he goes from living with hot girlfriend, cool dog and nice leather couch to prison, which carries with it the (disgustingly likely and unfortunately accepted by society) risk of rape.

3) You've seen too many movies. If you get the shit beat out of your face like in that movie, it will never look as good again. Plus, I can believe that if you get into prison looking all fucked up, people won't fuck with you.

Grammar
 

It's ZEE and POP. Get it right. And it's FORWARD, BACKWARD, TOWARD. NOT Forwards backwards and towards.

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

A pocketbook is a handbag is a purse. A woman's wallet is a wallet, unless it's one of those leather checkbook covers that has a change purse and slots for credit cards built in, in which case it's a 'checkbook.' And waist packs are 'that thing that makes your huge American ass look even more egregiously bulbous.'

I've been debating what to call these new "European carryalls" for men that don't have the heft of a messenger bag but that you can't call a purse because that would be a kick in the 'nads to a guy's masculinity. "Mandbag" maybe? Guys, what can you accept without being worried your male friends will call you a sissy and beat you up on the playground?

I came across this interesting bit from Ms. Post on dating and engagement.

http://www.bartleby.com/95/20.html

Grating Accents
 

You're good, but you're no Karnak. After all, I told you I was from Seattle before we met.

Unless I didn't really say it but rather you used me like a ventriloquist's dummy and threw your voice out of my mouth.

Wow, you are good!

25th Hour
 

I don't mean to be gross about it, but the repercussions of prison rape are rather more dire than people imagine. A pretty young thing has a decent chance of getting all his teeth knocked out on day one, the better to orally service the gang. It's a recognized strategy to volunteer to be the punk of some big dude for protection early on, but that doesn't protect you from the HIV. The above applies to state prison. If you're doing federal time, YMMV.

The fact that prison rape has become a running joke in American culture is an embarassment.

Of course not, but there is much more to accents than the obvious, isn't there. As you may have noted, I tend to focus on vowel sounds, which, being particularly maleable, tend to be more subliminally influenced by environment and less easy parts of pronunication to change through education or training (or later exposure to much TV plugging the north chicago accent favored by newscasters).

accents
 

I have always found it interesting that accents change so dramatically as soon as you cross the border. There is this crossing from New Brunswick (the Canadian province, not the NJ town) to Calais (pronounced "callus"), Maine, where the people sound totally different ("bahh hahbah" on one side and "berrr herberrrr" on the other) and yet they are only separated by a few feet and interact frequently.

Grating accents and timmisms
 

ir·re·gard·less ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-gärdls)
adv. Nonstandard
Regardless.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Probably blend of irrespective, and regardless.]
Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.

Source: dictionary.com

Was your use of the "word" irregardless intended as a joke given the preceding sentence? If so, I can deal with it. :)

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

Two comments: 1) You must not spend much time in Europe if you think Americans are the only ones with large asses, 2) From the female perspective, I don't want a man to carry anything other than a wad of cash to spend on me. Manbags, satchells...whatever...look like purses. Men don't carry purses. Skinny little Euroboys carry purses.

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

It is a "bag," not a handbag. Oh, hell, that battle was lost 60 years ago, nevermind. It's an old snobbish distinction - "of course my bag is small and decorative and carried in the hand, this is presumed, do you think I have to make the effort to distinguish myself from laborer carting wheat or something?"

"Pocketbooks" were originally small books meant to be carried in the pocket (duh - but see below, "pocket" didn't originally mean what you think). First use a bit after 1600. At this time, books carried around often had cloth covers, rather larger than the book itself, that had draw-string edges that you pulled together to protect the book itself (a convention dating back some centuries before that). Books also being expensive, they were the bag/covers were quite elaborate and were carried about displayed so everyone could see that you could afford (i) a book and (ii) the education to read. Anyhow, it resembled a small drawstring bag when carried about. The association with women was probably earlier than most etymologies indicate (early 19th C), because the small books in these cases were most often small illustrated devotional books very, very commonly carried by women. Big scholarly books for men stayed in the libraries.

Incidentally, "pocket" originally also meant "bag" (anglo-norman "pokete" from OF "poque," surviving in "pig in a poke"). So more literally, "pocket book" originally meant "little book in a bag" rather than "little book stuck in an interior compartment of your clothing."

A bit later, and more probably the source of the current meanings, "pocket book" meant a mens compartmentalized bag that opened like a book and was folded in half and fastened shut to be carried around, usually used for carrying papers and other things you didn't want' rumpled (hence, the folding).

It is now US standard for "bag carried in the hand by a woman," but there are still regional pockets of older use.

A "purse" carried money (still does usually). It used to always be gender neutral, and regionally still is, but is often used for men in that way only as a euphemism for "prize."

A bag was a bag, whether for man, woman or animal.

A wallet (walet) was originally, c. 1300, either a bag for holding junk or a folding container for protecting or organizing papers (see the later meaning of pocketbook).

Grating accents and timmisms
 

Yes. I'm glad you got my joke.

-TL

Out of (the) Pocket + Ottawa accent
 

I am humbled by your extensive historical knowledge when all I can claim to know is current colloquial use.

But no matter what one calls them or why, I love them all.

PJ

Observation
 

While from any window it's fairly unnerving, it's particuarlly unsettling to have someone staring at you through your window when you're above the 20th floor.

Window washers wig me out.

Observation
 

Unfortunately none of them ever live up to my window-washer fantasy. Why do they have to be kind of scrawny and middle-aged instead of 20 and buff like I want them to be?

I still have the urge to flash them anyway. Perhaps one day I will.

Observation
 

I looked out one day and saw a very hot, very blond window washer.

It still squicked me out too much to remain while he cleaned my windows.

Even(has also had hot IT guys crawling under her desk)Odds

Observation
 

All the more so when the window is to your apartment, it is a saturday morning around 10am, and you are bare-ass naked doing the sex to your GF.

not7y(So fellas, d'you enjoy the show?)S

Observation
 

I turned around once to discover them outside my window, and totally jumped. I thought my heart was going to fly out of my mouth. I think I even squeeked or something. They laughed so hard they nearly fell off their platform, so I just laughed and gave them a wave, and proceeded to play tetris and drink coffee in their full view while they worked away in the hot sun.

It never occurred to me to flash them, though I did think about my habit of shutting my office door to readjust my skirt/bra/bunched undies, and I got worried.

Observation
 

I have never seen a hot IT guy. Granted, this is DC, but I never saw one in NY, either. I guess everything is better in Texas.

Or is that bigger?

Observation
 

Yes. I am not nearly as technologically incompetent as I claim to be when I need some eye candy. Really, I have no idea why that little tray that holds my keyboard and lets it slide under my desk keeps breaking. The screws are missing? The hell you say! Those damn cleaners!

Observation
 

I have only ever had somewhat lumpy IT guys crawling under my desk. It's ok though - just another example of God saving me from myself.

Observation
 

The OM started off working on user computers and was always being called to offices to help women reconnect their mysteriously disconnected printer cables.

But, he has never crawled under my desk in a professional sense.

E/O