RantWoman keeps thinking of calling up and recording one of her rants for the http://23rdandunion.org/index.htm project. One of the reasons this has not happened is vocabulary, both the vocabulary of the site and RantWoman's vocabulary.
Let us start with RantWoman who sometimes adopts a flexible grammar to fit into different situations. RantWoman also has a little bit of a reflex about using 5-syllable words when 3-syllable or even 2-syllable ones would do fine. RantWoman notes there are times when a 5-syllable word sums up a concept perfectly and RantWoman aims to provide correct spelling so people do not have to poke around dictionary.com with phonetic variants trying to nail the right concept. RantWoman also realizes that her 5-syllable words are as odd to others as is RantWoman's experience of some rap and hiphop or the voices of the immigrants, people from East Africa or Spanish-speaking countries who hopefully should be adding their accents to the audio tracks. Unfortunately 5-syllable words are also their own form of addiction, not so easy to banish even at times when they are not functional.
Then there is the usage of the area.
For instance, RantWoman's inner bard really likes some rap and slam poetry though she definitely recognizes the subculture's vocabulary as something hard for people new to the US. In other cases when the volume is cranked up to maximum and someone's car stereo is blasting, RantWoman has been known to grumble about noise violations and boys marking territory just like great big hound dogs. However in the same spirit of edification for other language professionals, RantWoman needs to add some specific neighborhood usage to her Lexicography thread.
Honky: historically used to refer to a white person, often a white person visiting an African American neighborhood to buy sex. Family vernacular: RantWoman to RantBrother "git yo' honky ass over here and be useful." As adults, RantWoman and RantBrother have historically done a fair amount of trash talking among ourselves. Usually an exclamation like this would shortly lead to gales of laughter. (RantWoman means to pen two entries relevant here: one about the 'hood being kind of a frontier for members of her birth family to encounter African Americans in large numbers and one about equal opportunity drug issues. Both of these heavily feature RantBrother. Stay tuned.)
Homey: home boy. 23rd and Union was the first time RantBrother lived among that level of social diversity and the experience was a little bumpy at times. RantWoman sometimes called RantBrother this when she was trying to make him feel at home in the 'hood but not calling him "honky."
"Ho." Hooker, sometimes just woman. Generally considered derogatory. Common rap usage. Also used in the phrase "nappy-headed 'ho's" to much hew and cry by a talkshow personality to refer to a whole team of very accomplished collegiate basketball players. Dang, if that's what "'ho" means, RantWoman who can seldom make all 4 limbs move in a coordinated fashion let alone do teamwork too, would take it in a heartbeat.
Alternate usage: one of the historical last names of China. RantWoman in those years had a lot of dealings outside the neighborhood with a Chinese woman whose last name was Ho. This Ho woman was voted "worst in category" by much more venerable persons than RantWoman. RantWoman knows many reasons she earned the title. RantWoman still fought others' tendency in conversation to refer to her as "the Ho." It's not that RantWoman thought very differently; RantWoman just did not trust herself not to slip inappropriately.
Weed and Seed: a program in the 1990's intended more or less to help neighborhoods root out drug houses and to promote desirable community activities. The program in Seattle was supposed to be a little more weighted toward social efforts than in some other cities, it was still pretty heavily weighted toward law enforcement. There was a good bit of Weed and Seed activity connected with the Central Area when RantWoman lived there. At that time Little Sister lived in another neighborhood with a lot of drug activity and devoted a lot of time to community efforts to clean up problems. Little Sister was pretty much equal opportunity in her scorn of behaviors related to the drug trade in her 'hood: she would bitch in clear and varied ethnic terms. Even so, the life of a community activist can take a great deal of time with many kinds of conflict over priorities.
Lieutenant Weed: the Weed and Seed program had a specific police lieutenant assigned to it. Little Sister had this officer's direct dial number and referred to him often in conversation in connection with neighborhood meetings. Somewhere in the churn of family conversation "the Weed Lieutenant" morphed into "Lieutenant Weed." RantBrother thought this was hilarious. RantWoman just thought no one needed to reinforce any temptation to misspeak at inopportune times.
"My you two do Favor each other." RantWoman and Little Sister learned this one from an African American woman one time on the bus. This means that although RantWoman and Little Sister were more easily distinguishable as kids, in adult form there is a pretty strong family resemblance. RantWoman mentions the phrase in connection with "Lieutenant Weed" not only because of lexicographic interest but also because of a possible misidentification issue: Weed and Seed as a program is "so last century;" now local law enforcement is trying to get a handle on youth violence and gangs and a bunch of misguided youth issues that need more than just law enforcement. So what's new? Lieutenant Weed is no longer a lieutenant but RantWoman has sometimes seen him in different contexts than Little Sister would. RantWoman has never been very good at either reading faces or performing socially lubricating small talk, but once in awhile it has occurred to RantWoman to wonder about possible confusion. As we learned on the bus, my, RantWoman and Little Sister do favor each other, but we think about problems from different perspectives.
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