Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 17:59:32 -0500

From: EJOHNSON[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSUVX2.MEMPHIS.EDU

Subject: miscellany, lexical



You're right, Terry, for warning those participants who might have mistaken our

fun for linguistics that it is not to be taken too seriously. Though I was

thinking about going upstairs to my office to bring down the copy of my

dissertation and give y'all some serious words of wisdom about green beans,

scallions, and the like. Maybe later.



And Natalie has a good point too in noting that here in the South, we have a

delightful variety of peas, the English kind being Way down at the bottom of

the list, IMO. Crowder peas and butter peas (no, not butter beans) are near

the top.



I, too, think the name for the plant whence poke sallit comes is pokeweed. YOu

have to gather it when it is tender and just sprouting out. At this time of

the year, when the stems are red and there are berries on it, it is supposedly

very poisonous.



Many small towns in Georgia have a "square" that one can only drive around in

one direction, that invariably has a confederate memorial in the middle, and

where the town's teenagers hang out on weekend nights. No greens here of that

sort.



I don't have a word at all for the space btw the sidewalk and the street. No

sidewalks in suburbia where I grew up, but some haouses did have a walk or

walkway going UP to the door (whether with steps or not).



Lastly, is the person who doesn't know what a hot dog "all the way" is for

real? Is this an idiosyncracy or are there other wisconsinites with the same

gap (bill?)? In Chile, if that's what you wanted, you ordered "un completo",

which was amazing in its toppings, and very messy. My mouth is watering, let's

not get back on junk food, please.



Ellen JOhnson

Univ. of Memphis (native of Atlanta)

ejohnson[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cc.memphis.edu