Julie R Fricke

Which brings us to the title of this post: SHIBBOLETH

A shibboleth is a word or phrase which identifies a person's heritage. It helps separate the outsiders from the insiders.In this case, refried beans, that is, enjoying them, becomes a shibboleth for weeding out the natives from the visitors.

Another red flag for me is people who refer to 90 degree days as "nice days." You don't call a 90 degree day nice in Southern California unless you're originally from somewhere cold and gloomy. Weather forecasters on tv are the worst offenders for this one. Then they often say it with their midwest accents (say aeccents) and I just about have a fit.  O has lived here for over 35 years after growing up in upstate New York. He still thinks 90 degree days are nice and that I am sick for disagreeing with him. Of course he was born in Rio de Janeiro at the height of their summer. He thinks it is normal to go to sleep at night sweating like a sauna guest. Me? I don't. In my opinion, the only good 90 degree day is the one that comes after a week of 100 + temperatures. Then 90 degrees feels pretty darn good.

For another shibboleth there's always the issue of whether a person says "take the 405." when choosing a freeways. Basically, if you have your choice of 37 numbered freeways, 10 named interchanges, such as" the Orange Crush" and "the El Toro Y," and five named sections of those freeways, such as "the South Bay Curve" or "the Sepulveda Pass," you darned well better identify which one you're going to take. Just as you would select "the blue shoes with the gold buckles" when selecting from 37 pairs of shoes rather than "blue ones," you're going to need to be specific, especially since making the correct choice is far more important than randomly choosing any pair of blue shoes. When you live in a town that is situated at the cross roads of just two highways, it obviously is not as important to speak specifically about the route to take.

For anyone who wants to read more about this, click here

Reverse Shibboleths

Can there be something that is a positive indicator for someone from another place? I would say that if you see someone sitting in the sun with their face turned toward the sky like some kind of solar panel you could probably have 95% certainty that that person was Norwegian, or possibly from Seattle, originally of course, from Norway.

Then there's all those quirky things people from other places like New York say, like standing on line. or coawffee. How do you even spell that? We won't even go into Nucular. 

shudder

I think I'll just wait in line to get on the 5 to drive north for 15 miles in 40 minutes to go to work. I will enjoy a pile of delicious refries. I won't be able to call you as I drive because that is currently illegal, even though, until recently, I could still text. I will try to retrain my students to say nucleeear instead of nucuuular. Maybe their parents are all republicans and they were unable to overcome the brainwashing they get at home about nuclear energy. But at least I will rest assured that they all like refried beans. Kosher, of course.