For all of its problems, I love Philly. It has a good grit-to-culture ratio, excellent restaurants, one of the largest urban parks in America, Ben Franklin impersonators, panhandlers who compliment a girl on her relative fineness before hitting her up for change, the Flyers, and the word “jawn.”
It also happens to be hosting the national TESOL conference next week, and I will be in attendance. If you’re there, do stop by the M-W booth and say, as others have said before you, “Wow, you are so much more [unintentionally unflattering adjective] than I thought!”
New post Monday morning.
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What about intentionally flattering adjectives?
I would posit that any adjective inserted into that particular construction cannot be flattering, intentionally or otherwise. Osservate, leggete con me:
“Wow, you are so much taller than I thought!”
“Wow, you are so much smarter than I thought!”
“Wow, you are so much more carbon-based than I thought!”
In any event, TESOL attendees are welcome to try and prove me wrong.
I just discussed this with my wife, and she’s not so sure. She could see telling a male celebrity Wow, you’re so much taller than I thought. I think there may be something here about women being looked down on if they are at any extreme: tall is unflattering for a woman, but so is short. My wife, however, disagrees with me here.
“Wow, you are so much more awesome than I thought!”
How about that one?
(I wish I was in the area of one of these appearances, but this is the price I pay for living in the middle of nowhere.)
“New post Monday morning.”
What Monday?
A…Monday in the future?
Sorry, I got swamped with pre-TESOL work and didn’t have time to finish a post. How about this coming Monday?
Sounds good.
I don’t pay good money to read this blog so that you can blow its deadlines for your day job, Kory.
Jawn? what’s that mean?
Oh, “jawn” is a great word. It basically means “thing” and appears in constructions like “Walgreens only sells drugs because it’s a pharmacy jawn,” or “Game of Thrones is that medieval porno jawn” (both of which are things I have actually heard and not just examples I made up).
“What’s that word for somethin’ when you forget that word for somethin’?”
“Jawn if I know.”