THE SOLDIERS BEHIND THE BANNER

Charlie Sykes - WTMJ Radio, Milwaukee ^ | Nov. 2, 2006 | Charlie Sykes

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Yahoo! has this picture as one of their "most emailed"

:-) That's music to my ears!!!!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Oh cool! I just e-mailed the photo to myself for kicks and grins.... (and to help Yahoo's stats rise a little higher ;-).

[middie]

Thanks---I enjoyed the responses to the senator's gaff. But a question: Why did either the malaprop or the reaction it engendered cause you to think of me??

[Valin]

Dat dere vas Minnesooota speak..don't cha know.

How To Talk Minnesotan
By Howard Mohr
http://minneapolis.about.com/cs/books/a/aa072799.htm

Howard Mohr teaches more than just the regional dialect. He also sets you straight on Minnesota etiquette.

Friends back East used to rib me about the covered wagons we lived in out here. That wasn't even thirty years ago. Today, thanks largely to popular media and major league sports, the Twin Cities are a world-class metropolis -- albeit, still in the Europeans' fly-over zone. Provincialism dies hard though, so despite all our best efforts to explain "Fargo" as a cartoon, visitors still expect that dulcet droning.
Of course they'll be disappointed in the Twin Cities. Tourists won't hear the uninflected "Ee-ah, sure." On the other hand, there are plenty of speech oddities to amuse the visitor and frustrate the transplant.

That's where How to Talk Minnesotan comes in handy.

If you've relocated here from beyond the five-state area, I urge you to watch the televised version when it airs during a PBS pledge drive. While you're waiting, you could do worse than to buy yourself a copy of the book. It should be in the foreign language section of your local bookstore, but you're more likely to find it under humor.
They may not know it, but the underlying motive for Minnesotans' behavior is the need to blend in, to be inconspicuous. While not everything is as uniform as a Minneapolis alley lined with giant, gray-green government-issue garbage receptacles, Minnesotans avoid drawing attention. Blending affects most aspects of life. If you've ever been frustrated by local drivers not using lane change signals, now you know why. Likewise, in outward appearance you may have trouble distinguishing executive from clerk. Even stranger, however, are the ways Minnesotans blur the boundary between staying and leaving.

Howard Mohr devotes a chapter to a real local custom, the "long good-bye." In case you think it's far-fetched, let me warn you, it's not. It's also one of the easiest habits to pick up. For practice, next time your guests mutter to themselves about how late it's getting, rush into the kitchen and brew up a fresh pot or pop open a few beers. Whatever. In this way your friends will be obliged to prolong their departure and you'll have been polite.

Strong reactions are frowned upon, although Howard Mohr rightly points out that a strong negative is better than a strong positive. Somehow natives, like my son, master this early without sounding like whiners. It's trickier for the rest of us and, frankly, that's not Howard Mohr's concern. What he is concerned with is explaining how to interpret the bland, neutral sounding comment of a native.

Positive expressions that avoid the sin of jinxing one's luck include:


It could be worse

Not too bad

Not so bad, and

Can't complain.
These are perfectly suited to describing those one or two days of perfect weather annually or as answers to "how are you?" after you've just received the Pulitzer.
The most important lesson Howard Mohr teaches comes near the beginning. Three expressions:


You bet,

That's different, and

Whatever
have a multitude of nuances, from agreement, through resignation, to disappointment. Howard Mohr provides plenty of sample dialogues for you to practice with a friend.
In addition to being a useful manual for transplants and visitors, it provides dry humor for everyone in the area.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Eye sea u haf to mahsturs deegreez tu. Ur won uv thuh stoopid peeple stuk n thuh Suthurn Kuhmand millitarry.

Jon Carry seams too haf know rispeck fur peeple lak u eeeethur.

[george76]

Good job.

This photo is tops in several places.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Your former service to this country. It has my respect and thanks.

[roaddog727]

Eye bees jest anuthur dumass R-me ossifur.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Chek ur freepmale (in the spirit of the banner's text ;-).

[Valin]

Yahoo! has this picture as one of their "most emailed

More bad news for the democrats. Now the only question is, Who made the banner Karl Rove, Dick Cheney or Don Rumsfeld?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Oh cool!!!! I'm going to drop this unit's webmaster a line and nudge him/her to post their now-famous picture on their site for posterity's sake.

[DoughtyOne]

Great shot. Thanks.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

If the sign read, "Hey Jon, u r a effin' moron" it would be a different story.

Hmmmm.... now maybe some enterprising, Photoshop-skilled FReeper would like to offer a secondary "edit" of this now-famous photo? ;-)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Eye bees jest anuthur dumass R-me ossifur.

What people like Jon Carry don't seem to understand is that people like you have made a conscious CHOICE to do what you do. They just don't get it, because you apparently keep coming back for more and really enjoy what you do.

And that kind of mindset reveals itself all the time - by his chronic disrespect of the troops since 1971 all the way through this current "botched joke" blunder (yeah, right...) that, hopefully, may have finally sunk his future presidential election hopes for good!!!

The world needs more people like you, not less.

[Just A Nobody]

Thank you Jan for the ping.

I love these guys!!! An 11x17 copy of the pic is hanging where I sleep and where I live (the campaign office) as I type.

Saved the article to read on November 8th. ;*)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

It's been e-mailed something like 935 times. The next highest number on that list is in the 100 range. Yahoo! indeed.

[george76]

voted ? viewed 1224

and counting

[Veeram]

Man, It's great to see some of our troops over in Iraq sticking it to Kerry.

I Just wish they could fire back at Murtha, Kennedy, Durbin and all the other demoRats who undermine them.

I would love to see a sign directed at Murtha saying something like "do you support us or not" The voice of the troops is powerful, as we have seen with the "botched joke" Kerry mess.

[roaddog727]

Kind thanks.

Happy to be of service.

[Grampa Dave]

What the US Army recruiting poster under "President" Kerry would look like:

Our brave warriors n Irak respond to Jon Carry"

Kerry is no different re his hatred of a strong America and our warriors than 99.9% of the rats in congress. Every rat running for election should have to face a copy of this banner everytime they show their treasonous faces. Pelosi, Murtha, Clintoon, Boxer, Kennedy, Durbin, Levin, Rangle, Reid and other rats in congress hate our military and a strong America. Just look at their voting records the past two years as President Bush pointed out this week.

Kerry is shown leading his fellow hate America and our military Rats to their final destination in American Politics:

Vote against all traitors this election day. Support our troops and their CIC, President Bush.