Baltimore's Greatness (Frederick, Rockville, Westminster: schools, university, pharmacy)

[vivo]

Originally Posted by barante

Regular readers know the answer.

yes it is u antero. moved to oc, cal last dec but still nostalgic about md. in fact id rather be there.

[vivo]

whaddya think terrapin???


How New Orleans got its accent. - By Jesse Sheidlower - Slate Magazine

Why Do People in New Orleans Talk That Way?The origins of the accent.

By Jesse Sheidlower
Posted Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005, at 6:48 PM ET If you've been listening to coverage of Katrina's devastation on the radio, you've no doubt heard (http://www.here-now.org/shows/2005/09/20050902_1.asp - broken link) the distinctive New Orleans accents of victims, officials, and rescue workers alike. Some of them speak with a familiar, Southern drawl; others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn. Why do people in New Orleans talk that way?


New Orleanians also use many Northernisms, including chiggers for the biting mites that nearby Southerners usually call red bugs, and wishbone for the chicken part more usually known as the pully-bone in the South.


The Yats have a strong Irish heritage, and several features of their speech recall stereotypical Brooklynese—"dese," "dem," "doze" for "these," "them," "those"; "berl," "earl," and "ersters" for "boil," "oil," and "oysters"; and "mudder" for "mother."

[guest2]

Originally Posted by barante

Regular readers know the answer.

barante, I should have guessed you were a professional. Complete sentences are a rarity on the internet. Would you consider sharing chapters of your book as they become available?

Originally Posted by vivo

yes it is u antero. moved to oc, cal last dec but still nostalgic about md. in fact id rather be there.

vivo, Orange County... Very, very different from Maryland. Do you live fairly close to your work? I do like the beaches there, and Little Saigon, and it's far enough from LA that you can generally avoid plastic people.

[barante]

Sorry, no advance peeking on chapters. For that reason I also ruled out articles in the Maryland Historical Magazine. Too much controversial stuff that has to be presented in its proper context.

[vivo]

Originally Posted by guest2

barante, I should have guessed you were a professional. Complete sentences are a rarity on the internet. Would you consider sharing chapters of your book as they become available?



vivo, Orange County... Very, very different from Maryland. Do you live fairly close to your work? I do like the beaches there, and Little Saigon, and it's far enough from LA that you can generally avoid plastic people.

well unemployed now but in my previous jobs it hasn't taken me over say a little over 20 min. um about the plastic people I'm guessing u haven't been to the oc section of the forum? It seems plastic people are generally to be found in OC, and not as much in LA (at least I haven't seen complaints to that effect much; don't browse the la forum as much however). it looks like there's a lotta complaining about OC. i like how in md there are actually real cities like baltimore and dc. i guess san diego is ok? im more than an hr from there. though haven't hung out in la much. la has a lot of areas u can go to but i guess it's not a traditional city.

[callsitlikeitis]

Originally Posted by Terrapin2212

That was a typical perspective from that girl, especially one from up in Connecticut. The typical, rich, snobby Connecticut to be exact.

Personally I'm sick of that kind of life. I've lived in a place like that in Montgomery County through high school and that's pretty done it for me for the state of Maryland and the Northeast in general (yes, the transplants have clearly made Maryland a northern state and not a border one). The only part of the state I like is Cumberland westward and the Eastern Shore, and while those parts are beautiful and friendly its hard to find employment there after I finish school.

I'm applying to both pharmacy and dental school at the Univ of MD campus in Baltimore City and I'm just completely depressed even though at least for pharmacy I think I have a good chance at getting in. My folks really want me to choose Maryland over out of state schools. For dental if I get in I really want to go to UNLV or Texas A&M. The idea of being in Baltimore really makes me dread. I don't see anything good about the city.

For one thing, the weather is miserable and its no doubt the entire Northeast AND Upper Midwest has been hemorraghing population to the Sunbelt states in the SOuth and Southwest at a rate that increases every year. The only place where you hear good things about Baltimore (or PHilly or Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Detroit) is from tourist bureaus. I have being cooped up indoors in the bitter cold from the middle of October all the way till beginning or middle of April when I can live in Nevada or Texas or NOrth Carolina where the sun always shines and though NC has a colder winter at least its not as long.

Baltimore just feels like a decaying, dreary city though ironically the East Coast is also snobby, arrogant, and elitist when it really doesn't have anything to be snobby about. I know people from both the DC and Baltimore areas who really look down on other parts of this country and as a native of New Orleans this really ticks me off. People here act like only the East and West coasts matter and the rest doesn't. Also Baltimore and Maryland are both ridiculously, insanely liberal. O'malley wants to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and use our taxes to build labor centers for the illegals. Eventually they will succeed in overturning the gay marriage ban. Our public schools indoctrinate kids in anti-Americanism, to be ashamed of American history when in fact they should be promoting patriotism and national pride.

There's just so much about the Northeast in general and this state in particular I can't take anymore. If I stay in Maryland it will have to be in a small city or town and even then the weather is still miserable. In the DC and Baltimore there are only 2 kinds of people that I've noticed. One if the ghetto thug, in your face, openly hostile type. The other is the typical snobby, arrogant, elitist, cold, rude Yankee, many of them originally from New Jersey. Whether next year or in 4 years I'm outta here.

I agree with Terrapin 100%. I lived in the Waverly area of Balto from 1985 through 1989. I realized from day one that I had made a huge mistake buying a row house there. Baltimore is one big cesspool. The locals were very unfriendly. Shopping is "Third World". Drug activity is rampant.

My house was broken into and according to police, neighborhood children were noted for "casing" houses and adult criminals lowered children through my basement window to ransack my possessions and retrieve them for the criminals. I had key locks on all windows but that one. My belongings were pawned in shops over on Greenmount Avenue. The police caught the criminals but would give no details about them or the location of my belongings.

I was ecstatic when I finally sold the house and got the hell out of Baltimore.

[guest2]

vivo, I think cities in the west are great in their own way, but for people with a different set of expectations. Scaling is the big difference. There are cities, like Baltimore, DC, Annapolis, which are scaled to human beings. Walking is a delight in these places. There are cities like LA, and places like OC, scaled to the car. A delight for convertible owners who live on a bluff overlooking the ocean or the valley.

Originally Posted by vivo

well unemployed now but in my previous jobs it hasn't taken me over say a little over 20 min. um about the plastic people I'm guessing u haven't been to the oc section of the forum? It seems plastic people are generally to be found in OC, and not as much in LA (at least I haven't seen complaints to that effect much; don't browse the la forum as much however). it looks like there's a lotta complaining about OC. i like how in md there are actually real cities like baltimore and dc. i guess san diego is ok? im more than an hr from there. though haven't hung out in la much. la has a lot of areas u can go to but i guess it's not a traditional city.

[Stormcrow73]

[quote=vivo;1537248]whaddya think terrapin???



New Orleanians also use many Northernisms, including chiggers for the biting mites that nearby Southerners usually call red bugs, and wishbone for the chicken part more usually known as the pully-bone in the South.

WTH?! I'm a native Arkansan and no one there says "red bugs" or "pully-bone." I guess it's as I always suspected, Arkansas isn't really that southern.

[guest2]

Originally Posted by callsitlikeitis

I agree with Terrapin 100%. I lived in the Waverly area of Balto from 1985 through 1989. I realized from day one that I had made a huge mistake buying a row house there. Baltimore is one big cesspool. The locals were very unfriendly. Shopping is "Third World". Drug activity is rampant.

My house was broken into and according to police, neighborhood children were noted for "casing" houses and adult criminals lowered children through my basement window to ransack my possessions and retrieve them for the criminals. I had key locks on all windows but that one. My belongings were pawned in shops over on Greenmount Avenue. The police caught the criminals but would give no details about them or the location of my belongings.

I was ecstatic when I finally sold the house and got the hell out of Baltimore.

You left 20 years ago. Can you truly comment on Baltimore with integrity? Let me make a pre-emptive response to those who are still here, but can't find the will to leave and are mostly still here because of their own inertia:

Isn't this conversation becoming embarrassingly cliched? I'll refer you back to the quote from the Hopkins student: "[the important thing is] helping to improve Baltimore rather than wasting precious time criticizing it".

Rather than complain, why not try to comprehend the problems you witness. The drug culture is a formidable social force. As formidable as any social contract based on law and order. For that reason, it is not going to be an easy problem to deal with. Flippant generalizations provide about as much social benefit as the drug-dealing being derided. Solving the problem aside, having empathy for Baltimoreans (they are still human beings) who live with drug addiction, or just live in the neighborhoods most burdened by this phenomena shouldn't be so hard. It might take getting off your couch and actually interacting with people. If you refuse to do that, then at least, from your couch vantage point, expose yourself to sources of information like David Simon's and Ed Burn's "The Corner". For those who haven't reached for a book in ages, HBO has produced an excellent and moving mini-series based on that book.

[carolott]

Originally Posted by guest2

Isn't this conversation becoming embarrassingly cliched?

And quite tedious.

Instead of griping and whining, it would be nice to discuss solutions instead of problems, no?