Cup of Coffee

June 6, 2013: Teacher’s Pet

126 Comments

A couple of weeks into summer vacation, the only thing on Skim's mind is how much she misses school. Well, I'll take that attitude for as long as I can get it, I guess.

126 thoughts on “June 6, 2013: Teacher’s Pet”

          2. I haven't heard idiosyncratic Minnesotan in a long time. I haven't heard someone use "pop" for soda in a long time and all of these here are starting to seem foreign as well. I played a video game (Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent) recently that's set in Minnesota in the dead of winter, and in at least one instance you can tell the actors aren't Minnesotan. There's a gag about "hot dish" based on the fact that few players will have heard the term, and the phrase sounds foreign coming from the mouth of the actress who says it; she puts the accent in the phrase on "dish." It's a small thing, but I've never heard it said that way.

            1. I remember feeling the same way when I played it. Other than the location and the clothing, I didn't get a Minnesota vibe at all.

      3. That map is fantastic.

        Justin Roberts has a song called "We Go Duck" (you can listen here) that includes these lyrics:

        My cousin in Minnesota calls it "duck, duck, gray duck."
        I don't care one iota what she wants to call it.

        The song also includes rubber binder/rubber band and casserole/hot dish.

        1. I was pretty irritated that some of these patterns weren't reflected in those 22 maps. Some author just picked their own particular exposures, I suppose, and I'm guessing there are similar selections for most places.

            1. Oh, right. Wrong opponent. I probably should have remembered that, since I actually recall the '84 election as a kid, but am a bit too young to remember '80.

      5. Upon moving to Minnesota the first linguistic oddity I noticed was "Do you want to come with?"

          1. I've never heard it anywhere else I've lived, so I consider it a Minnesota thing. The next thing I noticed was "You betcha" and "Don'tchaknow."

            1. I'm right there with you. I've been reading them over and over for five minutes and can't find any fault.

                2. My Nevada-born and raised mother pointed it out nearly every time it was used around her, so I knew the problem was with the "with" and "at", but I couldn't remember the proper term and I didn't care enough to google it.

                  1. How about this as a defense: The 'with' enofrces the idea that the person being asked will go to the same place as the other person in the same way that that person is going there. If you just ask someone if they "want to come", you're basically saying they have to drive themselves.

                    As for the 'at', I got nothin, other than that its just the right way to say it, dammit.

                    2. "me" or "us" is implied, so I don't have a significant problem with "Do you want to come with?"

                    3. Oh, of course it doesn't matter. But, if we're going to spend two days talking about semantics and defending our particular weirdness then I'm going to twist my logic for saying it as much as possible to convince myself I'm right.

                    4. Lest anyone assume this was a mean-spirited snob conversation, please be aware that hj and I took it offline to turn "dangling preposition" into slang for male genitalia to amuse ourselves, and it got a little worse from there.

                    5. No worries here, I'm taking this about as seriously as a college football player takes his education.

                    6. FWIW, the Boy's female h.s. friends referred generically to the boys as "danglers". Is this a generic thing now?

                    7. Huh. I haven't heard that, and I work with some folks the same age as The Boy. Perhaps they speak differently to old guys like me, though.

                3. My judge likes to tell the joke about the lawyer who, when told by a witness not to end a question during an examination with a preposition, then asked, "Where is the money at, asshole?"

                  2. There's a scene in With Honors where Joe Pesci's character uses that line.

          2. Oh, they actually use "are"? All I ever hear is "Where you at?", but usually with half as many syllables.

      6. I used to always say "pop" until I moved to SoCal and started getting blank stares. I then started using "soda pop" and now just say "soda." Actually, in my house it's just root beer.

    3. I get a lot of Canadians in here, and they have some hilarious nicknames for things. They typically refer to flash drives as "chip sticks."

          1. ...and just in case those of you who aren't around Canadians regularly have ever wondered "Do they really use 'oot' (though more often, I hear it as "oat") and 'eh?' that often?"

            The answer is yes.

            2. It's definitely oat instead of oot unless they're a Newfie.

              The Canadianism that weirded me out the most was the first time J called a napkin a "serviette."

              1. "fully all dressed" was a weird phrase for me.

                also, one of my special joys in life is listening to canadians make fun of newfies.

                EDIT: all dressed, right, that's what i meant.

                1. I had to ask J what the hell All Dressed chips were the first time we went to a grocery store. I've still never tried them. They sound kind of wack.

                  Apparently one of J's older sisters dated a Newfie when she was younger. He'd always ask her to make him "cheese wieners" which was a piece of folded white bread with a hotdog and cheese in the middle that was microwaved.

                  1. Huh, we used to make something like that when we were kids. Split a hot dog down the middle, pack the slit with American cheese (or Velveeta or Cheez Whiz in a pinch), wrap in white bread (using toothpick to hold the bread in place) and then bake in the oven until the bread is toasted and cheese melted. It's probably been 40 years since I had one of those.

                    2. That was a staple menu item when i was in elementary school, but we had no word for this.

                    4. What Rhu said. Those used to be on the school lunch menu sometimes at Spamtown High, IIRC.

                      Also, well played, cheaps. Well played.

              2. That's a British term, actually. A napkin to Brits, and I assume Canadians, is a diaper. Also called a nappy. So, don't offer a Brit a napkin with dinner.

    4. Re: Bubbler. I've lived in Wisconsin for a few years now, and I've only heard one person use it. I was told by a friend in South Dakota that EVERYONE calls it that here. I asked about it and was told that it was actually a brand of water fountain that originated in Wisconsin. The map makes sense though, I've lived on the edge of the Bubbler line so that explains why I haven't heard much of it.

      1. My experience is similar. I've only heard it very, very sporadically and almost all of those people seem to be from Oshkosh or nearabouts.

        1. I wonder if it's more of a cultural signifier now. As in no one really calls it that anymore but when asked they say "oh yeah, we totally call that a bubbler because we're from Milwaukee and that's our thing (along with smelling of old sweat and shame)."

      2. I heard it from a college classmate who was from Milwaukee. (Which she informed me is pronounced muh-WAH-key. So much for that "l" in there!)

        1. actually, it's pronounced "me-lee-wah-kay"...

          httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5FT3IGXtAk
          (nice mash-up of this and the below thread)

        2. The take-away from that (other than hj's correction above) is that you should never trust something someone from Milwaukee says.

        4. Speaking of town pronunciations, I'd love so see a map of the pronunciation of "Louisville". The saying is the farther you are from there, the more of the letters you pronounce. Personally, mine is something like "LOO-vul"

            1. i live near des plaines in illinois, and after i moved here, i was sternly corrected when i mispronounced it:

              "it's DES plaines."

              "oh, right, like DES moines. excuse me."

              1. Pronunciation of French town/city names generally amuses me, as it can be a total crapshoot and knowing French is only a detriment. Fond du Lac, Vadnais Heights, Lac qui Parle . . .

            2. Oh holy balls, I thought you meant that the city of Des Moines has many different pronunciations of words. Now after hj's comment, I understand you meant the pronunciation of Des Moines. Not my finest moment inside my own brain.

          3. We have a Louisville here in NE not far for Omaha, it's pronounced "Lewis-ville."

              2. Let's not get into town pronunciations, Missouri's notorious.

                It always bothered us when we were in state tournaments and the announcers couldn't pronounce ANYTHING correctly. Somehow "Fertile-Beltrami Falcons" came out FUR-tile bell-TRAHM-ee FAL-kinz*

                *FURTLE bell-TRAM-ee FAHL-kunz, please

                1. How about the state pronunciation itself. I pronounce it mi-ZER-ee. I believe the natives pronounce it mi-ZER-uh. The one that drives me nuts is Oregon. It's OR-again. Not or-RE-gone.

                  1. My wife lived in Oregon for a couple of years before she lived in Wisconsin as a girl, and had to endure loads of teenaged cheeseheads telling her that she wasn't correctly pronouncing the name of the state where she'd lived for two years.

                    3. My family lived in "ORR-egin" for about four years and then we moved to Minnesota when I was in 4th grade. Like the Milkmaid, I had many, many people (including teachers) tell me it was "Or-RE-gone".

                      And having been born in "NE-va-da", the "Nay-VAAH-dah" pronunciation also raises my hackles.

                  2. No, the natives don't pronounce it mih-ZOO-rah, the hicks pronounce it that way*. It's mih-ZER-ee.

                    *okay, I guess they also do in football cheers in Columbia -- Mizzou RAH!

                    1. Every summer we drove from Ohio or Indiana to Oklahoma for vacation. It took forever to get through Missouri, so we always called it Misery.

          4. Same thing goes for the pronounciation of "Appalachian"...I went into the Navy saying, "Appuh-lay-chee-en" and came out saying, "Appuh-latchun". And, "Nor-folk" - people out there pronounce it, "Nah-fuck".

            1. I hope you asking the people in Virginia, "do you like living in this town?"

    1. They spin that song constantly here (as they do a lot of his songs). I think I'm also just about the only person at work who's never run into Alice Cooper around the city. It's like the old joke that you aren't a New Yorker until you've met Woody Allen, because he's always everywhere.

    2. Ditto Daughter the Younger, she's now officially a senior. As much as I love my girls, I'm ready for some empty nesting.

    1. Curious... can you put in links to your other columns where they might overlap, as a way of trying to get more views?

      1. They're at the bottom after "More from this author:". Also, I can link to them in the article, but I have to write something like "as I wrote last week" etc.

        1. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the in-article links might work better, as if you're already reading about, say, prospects, you might follow links to other prospect articles. At least I know I tend to operate that way.

          1. I try to do that when I can. They limit us to three links in the article and I needed three to the references for player rankings and Jim Callis. The links at the bottom still do fairly well. They also are important for improving rankings on Google. What really helps is being at the top of the page on the Yahoo! Twins page. It will be placed on the team page of any team I mention, so I've tried to get in a mention of the Yankees or Mets whenever I can. They're not really looking for Twins stuff on those pages, but I know I've clicked on a story on the Twins page that isn't about the Twins just to see why it was on the Twins page.

  7. I know we talked about this once in the past, so I know there are fans, so did anyone else watch the French Open women's semis just now? Sharapova beat Azarenka in a long, well-matched...uh, match...and Serena absolutely slaughtered Sara Errani in 46 efficient minutes. The Williams sisters have never been at their best on clay and only have one French Open title between them (Serena in 2002) but man, she was awesome today.

      1. Tomorrow's semifinal match of Nadal-Djokovic should be awesome. Naturally, I won't be able to watch it at all.

    2. I watched almost the first two games. It looked like it might be a long one as neither Sharapova's or Azarenka's serves were that great. Serena has experienced a bit of a resurgence of late. There's a reason she's ranked first and seeded first.

      1. I noted at one point that I hadn't seen a single ace in the Azarenka/Sharapova match (I'm sure a couple happened, but I didn't see all of that one as I was playing with my daughters) and then the match ended with one. That was fun.

        1. ...looks like Sharapova alone had 12 aces. Huh. I guess I was mostly engaged late, when it was mostly a race to the bottom with both women committing error after error.

          1. Reading a recap it seems she dominated the first set, probably right after I stopped watching.

  8. FTLT and I are headed down to the harbor tonight for the free Hold Steady show. Only it's been raining all day. I'll still go, because I feel like it has the potential to be a good story. But I already spent almost an hour in the rain today already getting to and from the museum this morning, and more of that doesn't sound appealing. At least this time I can put on my boots and keep my feet dry.

    1. So glad I went. The weather broke about 30-45 min or so before THS went on, so all the people that were there were die hard fans. As I said to Buffalo as we left, that concert was life-affirming. You couldn't help but feel alive after that.

  9. Let's compare two NBA players in terms of regular season WARP, according to Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus and ESPN.

    Player A: 216
    Player B: 216

    Spoiler SelectShow

    1. I guessed those two, but only because I figured it was something...unlikely, since you brought it up.

      Have there been any extensive looks at the WARP stat?

      1. what is the correlation between WARP and WS for NBA players?

        from the glossary entry at nbastuffer.com:

        Like all rating systems based on box-score data, WARP cannot account for contributions that are not tracked in the box score, most notably on defense. It does no better than linear weights methods at evaluating players like Bruce Bowen. Also, it requires a number of assumptions - the value of assists, the trade-off between usage and efficiency, and replacement level. But, this rating system is very flexible. Players can be rated on a per-minute basis (using the theoretical "winning percentage" of the team with four average players), in terms of their offense and defense and in terms of their overall value.

        I suspect that SF WARP tends to be higher than SG WARP because SFs tend to have higher rebounding rates without giving up much/anything on assist rates, steals, etc.

  10. Just called Comcast to get rid of expanded cable...and now I have it essentially for free for the next two years. Why didn't I call a long time ago?

    2. the mrs does this on a regular basis with AT&T: keep giving me the teaser rate or I cancel our triple-play. Isn't market competition and threat of exit great?!

    3. I cut $100 a month off our Comcast bill by getting rid of the landline phone (redundant with 4 cell phones in the house) and making a slight tweak to our TV package a couple of months ago. Now if I could just get my daughters to actually answer their cell phones when I call them...

      1. Hah.

        The Girl is whining for a smart phone. I tell her it would be smart to, you know, charge and use the phone you have now!

  12. Love triangle:

    "So, I have to get this out of the way. There has been a lot of speculation out there and just so we're clear, I am not getting traded," Love said after Saunders was introduced.

    "You are not being traded. Does that make you feel better?" Saunders replied. "Maybe now people will stop calling me."

  13. Trivia: Name five players to accumulate a .300/.400/.500 slash line with at least 500 doubles, 450 Home Runs and 1500 walks.

    Spoiler SelectShow

    1. Anybody who finds the Spurs boring doesn't like basketball. SA had 4 turnovers tonight. (Miami only had 8.)

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