Language and Culture

Reclaiming My Voice

R. Horton

I guess some people thought (and I was one of those people) I might lose my accent after moving to the UK. I was sort of hoping I might lose it, because I associated my East Texas accent from my youth with ignorance, bigotry, and violence. And, yes, I have been assaulted more than once or twice by someone dripping with the twangy tones of east Texas intolerance.

I always knew, but tended to put aside, the fact that my suppressed accent was similar to the voices of people like Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, John Henry Faulk, Ann Richards, Robert Earl Keen, Dr. Red Duke, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Joe Ely, and many more. Now that I’m further away from the KKK-loving shit-kickers, I often miss the sounds of home. I miss a voice I strangled more than 40 years ago.

Lately, I’ve been trying to write and speak in the voice I lost so long ago. Coming out of the closet, so to speak. I’m stepping from the shadow of shame, I guess. It turns out you can sound like that and not be a total asshole. You can be queer, embrace religious tolerance, celebrate your neighbours’ differences, and just try to be a decent but hopelessly flawed individual (just like everybody else).

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On Perusing a Dictionary of Modern English Usage as It Pertains to Suffering

R. Horton
black and white book browse dictionary
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Deferring to the OED, Fowler’s* tells us not
To spell “inure” as “enure” for variant
Spellings are not needed; even if “inure”
Has two meanings, it is still only one word.
But who ever heard of “inure” relating to
Anything but some form of suffering?

Something quite beautiful and useful
Might well be put “in ure,” which just
Means we like this well enough to
Make a habit of it, and that cheers
Me up a little, as I had become inured
To “drudgery and distress” (Fowler’s
Example) and need reasons for joy.

You are thinking the primary usage
Became the primary usage because
The world has more misery than
Benefit, but maybe it is the other way
Around. Maybe language defines
Reality after all. If we had inured
All the good things all along,
Maybe we’d be in a better place.

If contemplating stuffy usage guides
Had inured, perhaps I wouldn’t have
Missed so many opportunities to be
Cheerful, to glide blissfully through
A life of Best Practices. Instead, I grew
Inured to heartbreak and dreary poets
Clamoring on about their lost loves.

*Fowler’s Modern English Usage, by H. W. Fowler, a handbook for pedants and arrogant copywriters.

US and UK Pudding Differences

R. Horton

Americans are sometimes confused by how Brits use the word “pudding.” In the UK, “pudding” basically just means dessert, so anything sweet could be a pudding. For example, what Americans call pudding (something kind of similar to a blancmange) would be a pudding, so it is possible to have an American pudding for your pudding.

But you would never have a Yorkshire pudding for your pudding, because a Yorkshire pudding isn’t sweet after all, unless it is used to make a Dutch IMG_1026Baby, which is like a sweet Yorkshire pudding sort of. A Dutch Baby enrages some Brits but not others.

No one would have a Black Pudding for pudding, though, because it is blood sausage, and I don’t think anyone would have a Suet Pudding for pudding, either, as I can’t imagine anyone ever eating a Suet Pudding for any reason sort of imminent starvation. American’s might choose a Steak and Kidney pudding before opting for a Suet Pudding, but not by much.

You might be excused for thinking a Christmas Pudding is a Black Pudding, but they are two different things. A Christmas Pudding is dark in colour but sweet, in a way that some people might find tempting to try.