Saturday, April 10, 2004 The red states
I was looking around Television Without Pity to see if anyone thinks that NBC is secretly paying The Apprentice's Omarosa to be terrible, or if anybody else has the theory that the whole thing is a prank, like The Joe Schmo Show, where everybody's a paid improvisational actor except for the dupe (in this case, poor boring Bill, who if this was true, wouldn't get why it was such a 'genious idea.). Under this theory, on the shocking final episode, Donald Trump himself would reveal that his life, including his marriages, business decisions, and hairstyle choice, has been an elaborate work.
Instead I found the Harvard Dialect Survey, where they've charted out the patches of the country where people say things like "frappe" or "might could." In general, there doesn't seem to be as much as a north/south divide as I was expecting there to be, even on stuff like "crawdad." (It's a couple years old, but new to me.)
I wish there was a way to answer all the questions myself, and then overlay them with the regions where they talk like I do, largely so that I could move to one of these places and never, ever have to hear anyone say, "Don't turn your awnt into an insect!" or "David Booie" and get away with it again. Unfortunately, I suspect that the people who talk like I do live somewhere unappealing, but I might could visit, at least.
posted by Frenz | 4/10/2004 10:15:00 AM
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