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Re: Message Volume (was Re: Places where Slocum...)
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2003 Dec 23, 17:10 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2003 Dec 23, 17:10 EST
Hi Jan, you wrote:
"before your comments about other people's mothers, you would have been fully right. But now, you seem to dodge deserved cuffs."
Since you're not a native English speaker (and I apologize that I am unable to reply to you in Czech), you are probably not aware that "your mother wears army boots" is a JOKE insult. No one has taken it seriously since the 1940s at the latest. It's the sort of thing people used to say in old cartoons. I think even Bugs Bunny said it. I am really flabbergasted, astounded that anybody could take it seriously (especially when I followed it up with the net-obligatory "just kidding").
I do have a theory though why some people (who are English speakers) might so wildly misconstrue humor. I think it might be a generational issue. After all, some people on this list actually lived through the 1940s and maybe they remember "your mother wears army boots" as a real insult. Myself, I'm 40, which is probably a little on the young side for this list. I can assure you that for anyone my age of younger, that "army boots" comment is a nonsense phrase --a meaningless "joke" insult. After all, why on Earth would anyone consider a comment on footwear to be a real insult?!
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
"before your comments about other people's mothers, you would have been fully right. But now, you seem to dodge deserved cuffs."
Since you're not a native English speaker (and I apologize that I am unable to reply to you in Czech), you are probably not aware that "your mother wears army boots" is a JOKE insult. No one has taken it seriously since the 1940s at the latest. It's the sort of thing people used to say in old cartoons. I think even Bugs Bunny said it. I am really flabbergasted, astounded that anybody could take it seriously (especially when I followed it up with the net-obligatory "just kidding").
I do have a theory though why some people (who are English speakers) might so wildly misconstrue humor. I think it might be a generational issue. After all, some people on this list actually lived through the 1940s and maybe they remember "your mother wears army boots" as a real insult. Myself, I'm 40, which is probably a little on the young side for this list. I can assure you that for anyone my age of younger, that "army boots" comment is a nonsense phrase --a meaningless "joke" insult. After all, why on Earth would anyone consider a comment on footwear to be a real insult?!
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
