This occurred at work today. Everyone was talking about how Miyuki (not her real name) the Japanese woman who works with us is so awesome. Her English is actually pretty good– she can understand as well as speak it really well– she just has a super thick accent which causes everyone to talk to and about her like she’s about 8 years old sometimes. Marge (also not her real name) is a middle-aged Southie native.
MARGE: Miyuki is awesome. Miyuki, you are the shit. Oops, you can’t swear at work… I mean Miyuki, you are the bomb.
ME: Miyuki is the shizznit.
MARGE: yeah, Miyuki, you’re the shizznit. I don’t even know what that means. What’s shizznit? … Is that Jewish?
I can picture it now…
Oy Herschel, I’m noshing on this bagel… and it is the shizznit! The most shizznit-like bagels in the world Ruth makes; I’ve never had a better one before, not even at Max’s Deli, I’m telling you!
I’m pretty sure that Miyuki is familiar enough with American slang to know that “the shit” and “the bomb” are good things, at least I hope so. I’m sure if I wasn’t fluent in a language and I went to another country and someone called me “shit” or “bombed” I’d probably be confused at the very least.
I love slang. “shit” and “the shit” are pretty much exact opposites.
Being “the Bomb” is good, but “bombing” is bad, although “being totally bombed” is another thing altogether.
On another front, ancestry.com is cool because you can search for people in other peoples’ family trees and then link them to your own. For example, my great-great grandmother Blanche Petrie had 5 siblings all of whose descendants seem to be genealogy buffs, so they did all the leg-work for me on that branch of the tree!
Irish Catholics seem to recycle names from a very small naming pool, so I’ve found records of dozens of Daniel McSweeneys who have daughters named Frances and Margaret. I don’t think I’ll get very far on that count!
However, Anya’s people (I think this is one of Uncle Kenneth’s children) have managed to track down her ancestors back to the 1500s in England. These guys have some awesome names. Among the cooler ones are: Crippen Hurd who was married Thankful Wilcox, but had kids with someone else who were named (among others, there were also James, Sarah and other bland names) Elnathan, Jabez, Huldah, & Sabra. Other cool names in my tree: Coonrod Lafler, Court Coule, Elihu Church, Abiah, Assenath, just to name a few…
June 5th, 2008 - 5:14 pm
Did you pay for ancestry.com? I can’t bring myself to do it. I’ve been researching my family for at least 3 years and have gotten really far without it, but I think I’m getting to the point where I need to subscribe.
One of my favorite ancestors is named Thankful Experience (I forget the last name right now!). You’d love some of my ancestor’s names. Someday I’ll make a website…
June 5th, 2008 - 10:57 pm
I have a 14-day free trial membership. I think I’m going to cancel after that, although the international membership is sort of tempting. However, finding a Daniel McSweeney in Ireland is probably a futile gesture, ditto for Daniel Lane in England…
June 6th, 2008 - 1:10 pm
Yeah, I have Quinns to find in Ireland. I don’t hold out much hope!
When we went to MA a few years ago we found my 9x or 10x great grandparents(!) graves in Monson and another town. I also have deep roots in Springfield (there is a statue of Samuel Chapin there - he’s my ggrandfather 2 or 3 ways, yeah, I’m inbred!). I really loved MA when we were there (except the freeway…). This is what I did on my vacation that year - walked around graveyards! We still have work to do there someday. Genealogy is really fun. Have fun with it.
I’m sure your family will appreciate the work, too. 