The Insane Story of the USC Professor Suspended for Accurately Quoting Mandarin Filler Word
The story is a few days old, but I can’t stop thinking about it.
Greg Patton is a professor of clinical business communication at the University of Southern California. During a recent virtual classroom session, he was discussing public speaking patterns and the filler words that people use to space out their ideas: um, er, etc. Patton mentioned that the Chinese often use a word that is pronounced like nega.
“In China the common word is ‘that, that that that,’ so in China it might be ‘nega, nega, nega, nega,'” Patton explained to his class. “So there’s different words you’ll hear in different cultures, but they’re vocal disfluencies.”
The poor students whose mental health has been harmed are being offered counseling services:
On Tuesday evening, the USC Marshall School of Business provided Campus Reform with a statement, confirming that Patton is no longer teaching his course.
“Recently, a USC faculty member during class used a Chinese word that sounds similar to a racial slur in English. We acknowledge the historical, cultural and harmful impact of racist language,” the statement read.
Patton “agreed to take a short term pause while we are reviewing to better understand the situation and to take any appropriate next steps.”
Another instructor is temporarily teaching the class.
USC is now “offering supportive measures to any student, faculty, or staff member who requests assistance.” The school is “committed to building a culture of respect and dignity where all members of our community can feel safe, supported, and can thrive.”
He has been using this example for years. Here’s the video of it:
There’s no intent to antogonize. It’s simply an accurate example.
My Chinese teachers *taught* us to use this filler (nèi ge) rather than "um." It has nothing to do with race. I hope his leave is paid….
USC Communications Professor Placed On Leave after Using Chinese Phrase That Sounds Like Racial Slur https://t.co/nDzsHvLTcR— Sheena Greitens (@SheenaGreitens) September 4, 2020
To the crowd who says they can’t figure out why people signed the Harper’s letter, or what this “cancel culture” stuff is … *this* is what we have been talking about. Utter insanity like this.
UPDATE: Eugene Volokh has published what is represented to be the strongly worded letter to the USC administration from USC Marshall School of Business Alumni. The whole thing is worth reading but here is my favorite part:
It seems entirely appropriate that the person or persons who brought forth such abusive and dishonest charges should be reprimanded strongly by Marshall not only for the obvious Student Conduct and Integrity violation, but for demeaning the important cause they pretend to stand for.
Amen. It is not the professor who should suffer consequences here, but rather the students who manufactured this ridiculous nontroversy.
Tenured Professor Fired for Accurately Quoting Leading Campus Speech Code Case
The professor, chair of the Central Michigan University journalism department, was teaching a media law class, and quoted a case that discussed the use of the word “n******r” at public universities.
…….
Dambrot v. Central Michigan University (6th Cir. 1995) is one of the leading cases on the First Amendment and campus speech codes. It struck down a Central Michigan University speech code that banned, among other things, any speech
But it also upheld the firing of a basketball coach who had used the word “n******r” in a motivational speech….. The court concluded that the speech wasn’t on a matter of “public concern,” and thus not protected against the government as employer, because it wasn’t tied to any broader matters, wasn’t part of classroom teaching, and “served to advance no academic message”……
Dambrot mentioned the word “n******er” 19 times (as well as “N-word” 10 times, plus “N word” once in a quote). Though using the word to motivate players, the court concluded, was punishable, mentioning the word in describing the facts struck the judge as perfectly proper.
And I doubt that this was because the author, Judge Damon Keith, was unaware how offensive the word could be; as a black man born in 1922 Detroit, I would guess that he had been called it on many occasions. …….
Unsurprisingly, then, Prof. Tim Boudreau, chair of Central Michigan University’s Journalism Department, followed the same pattern: presumably thinking it important to accurately quote the facts, and distinguishing in his mind use from mention, he likewise quoted the word twice while quoting the facts of Dambrot.
Rip Murdock (b2603f) — 9/7/2020 @ 3:10 pm………
So the word that Judge Keith mentioned 19 times in his opinion, and that has appeared in over 10,000 other opinions (written by judges of all races and all political stripes, of course) and over 10,000 briefs (and likely much more than that)—much more often than “N-word” or “n—r”—now can’t be said at Central Michigan University by a professor teaching a media law class about that very opinion.
……….
This is latest in a series of incidents of professors being disciplined (or fired) for using epithets in classrooms quoting legal opinions or literature. See also “ Quoting Epithets in the Classroom and Beyond.” It is more than “cancel culture,” it is out right censorship and the ending of academic freedom.
The professor explicitly said “In China” when referring to the offending word and its usage. The students that complained not only demonstrated their own intolerance, but also that they are unable to view or understand a culture different from their own. Ironically, that is what a not small number of black Americans accuse white America of doing on a regular basis.
Really? They might want to ask the Chinese students and staff about this.
Dana (292df6) — 9/7/2020 @ 3:24 pmSince 2013 Southern Cal has received a minimum of $68 million from Chinese donors. SC is loathe to do anything to offend their funding stream.
Rip Murdock (b2603f) — 9/7/2020 @ 3:35 pmIt’s hard to see how this wouldn’t offend their Chinese donors. The offending word is a commonly used word in China, and a select group of non-Chinese students are upset about it. It would seem like the donors would be culturally offended by the students’ inability to recognize their culture and language as different from their own.
Dana (292df6) — 9/7/2020 @ 3:55 pmYou know, I have come to expect kids to react this way way. It’s baked in these days. With that, however, I am always surprised to be reminded that there are no adults left in the room. Not the professor, who ended up apologizing to students, and not the administration that jumped in to save the endangered children. No adults left to tell them firmly, “no!”
Dana (292df6) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:11 pmWhat is the English translation for the Chinese words Mah or Ma? That might be an interesting twist on a well known Denzel Washington Training Day meme.
urbanleftbehind (321612) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:30 pmSince 2013 Southern Cal has received a minimum of $68 million from Chinese donors.
Given that USC has a $5.73 billion endowment and a $5.3 billion annual budget, $68 million strikes me as a niggardly amount.
nk (1d9030) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:33 pmTell me again what this “tenure” thing is all about.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:40 pm“Cancel Culture”— nothing new. Case in point:
“My Old Kentucky Home” was quilled by Stephen Foster in 1852. Abolutionist Frederick Douglass even promoted the song in his time. Today, the original lyrics are deemed offensive and routinely changed.
The original Stephen Foster lyrics of the song, were:
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home.
‘Tis summer, the darkies are gay,
The corn top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy, and bright.
By ‘n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night.
Weep no more my lady, oh! weep no more today!
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,
For the old Kentucky home far away.
They hunt no more for the ‘possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by the old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!
Weep no more my lady, oh! weep no more today!
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,
For the old Kentucky home far away.
The head must bow and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the darkies may go.
A few more days and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,
No matter ’twill never be light.
A few more days till we totter on the road,
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!
Weep no more my lady, oh! weep no more today!
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,
For the old Kentucky home far away.
Most modern renditions of the song change the word darkies to people (with the Commonwealth of Kentucky officially adopting this change in 1986). – source, wikiwhatcolorisyourlawnjockeypainted.org
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:45 pmSo, if a black* coach referred to members of his 80% black team as “n….rs”, and blacks often do, would the white players need counseling for hearing this racial epithet, bring back memories of their racist grandparents, and their shame for being white?
———–
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:47 pm* or is that Black coach now, the Newspeak editions are coming out more frequently now.
They seem to ignorant in any language.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:47 pmWould be nice if Black Americans stopped trying to force other black people from around the world and force every other culture to view race and color through only a Black American perspective. Apologies and credit to Kelvin Odanz for a paraphrase of his twitter comment.
Marci (405d43) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:47 pmI await the EDIT button.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:48 pm1. I can’t believe people risked prison to send their kids to these places.
nk (1d9030) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:52 pm2. I feel sorry for the students, the whiners and non-whiners both, who are taught this crap.
3. I would feel sorry for the professor if he were not a member of the gang himself.
Would be nice if Black Americans stopped trying to force other black people from around the world
Not so long ago, the word was “African-American” and I remember a committee trying to devise a survey form for an international organization. There were some black folks on the committee and they were adament that the Ethnicity questions should have only “African-American” as the choice for black folk. Suggesting that Brits or Canadians or Senegalese might have issues with that was not acceptable to them.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 4:53 pmGood grief academia you people are a con.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:01 pmUPDATE: Eugene Volokh has published what is represented to be the strongly worded letter to the USC administration from USC Marshall School of Business Alumni. The whole thing is worth reading but here is my favorite part:
Amen. It is not the professor who should suffer consequences here, but rather the students who manufactured this ridiculous nontroversy.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:13 pmThe students have awful teachers.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:20 pmHe actually prefaced by saying in chinese its ‘nega’ it makes your brain hurtm
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:32 pmThat’s a terrific letter, and I’m glad that Volokh published it in full. USC Annenburg Media mentioned it briefly in their report:
The students have done the everything that they are complaining about. There’s a word for that in English, and I suspect in Chinese as well.
Dana (292df6) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:34 pmUSC’s communique refers to “student, faculty, or staff”. If the students knew better, they would not need to be in school in the first place. The onus is entirely the faculty’s and staff’s.
nk (1d9030) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:45 pmThey can expel kids for violating social distance, they can send them back home for a two-week quarantine because one person in their dorm (not them) tested positive for coronavirus, but they cannot find a way to tell them that foreign languages have homophones that are offensive words in English. In Greek, too — the Malacca Strait is a childhood favorite from geography class.
nk (1d9030) — 9/7/2020 @ 5:52 pmThere are a lot of words in one language that are homonyms for words in another language. I know that “pizza” sounds like an impolite word for vulva in Polish. “People” sounds like a childish word for penis in German. There are a zillion other examples I’m sure. I know that pharmaceutical companies screen their brand names to avoid such problems.
Fred (da68eb) — 9/7/2020 @ 6:08 pmTuition is $59,260 at USC and, if you’re not living with parentals, the total cost is $79,063.
Paul Montagu (a2078e) — 9/7/2020 @ 6:20 pmNot worth it.
It seems entirely appropriate that the person or persons who brought forth such abusive and dishonest charges should be reprimanded strongly by Marshall….
Yeah, that’ll happen.
Who does he think runs Marshall? Trump?
beer ‘n pretzels (77090e) — 9/7/2020 @ 6:51 pmIt is not the professor who should suffer consequences here, but rather the students who manufactured this ridiculous nontroversy.
I disagree, in part. It is the DEAN who displayed cowardice in the face of the students who should suffer the consequences, by being fired immediately.
Apart from the absurdity you have pointed out, he is also doing the complaining students a deep disservice. Instead of helping them grow up, he coddled their stupid inanities. These are graduate students in a business program. If they are so traumatized by this, then how are they going to deal with the stresses of business? How are they going to be able to do business with Chinese speakers (not only from China, but also Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) if they are traumatized by a common Chinese word?
Bored Lawyer (7b72ec) — 9/7/2020 @ 7:20 pmMeanwhile…..
United Nations
@UN
·
The #COVID19 pandemic is demonstrating what we all know: millennia of patriarchy have resulted in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture which damages everyone – women, men, girls & boys.
_ _
Pure lunacy
harkin (cd4502) — 9/7/2020 @ 7:40 pm_
Sheesh Patterico – the guy got a paid vacation and you’re trying to ruin it for him.
😀
Dave (1bb933) — 9/7/2020 @ 7:50 pmPatterico, welcome to my world. I hope to survive until retirement. As for tenure, what a joke.
Simon Jester (570aff) — 9/7/2020 @ 7:54 pm24.Tuition is $59,260 at USC and, if you’re not living with parentals, the total cost is $79,063. Not worth it.
Until you apply for a job that doesn’t require you to ask, ‘you want fries with that?!’
Reaganomics.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/7/2020 @ 7:59 pmI know that pharmaceutical companies screen their brand names to avoid such problems.
When I was in high school Spanish class (way back in the last century), we read about how GM was puzzled that the Chevy Nova, a popular car in the U.S., was selling very poorly in Latin America.
Then someone pointed that that NO VA in Spanish means “Doesn’t Go.”
They then renamed the care for Spanish-speaking countries.
Bored Lawyer (7b72ec) — 9/7/2020 @ 8:12 pmThe same for the Montero. It’s the Pajero in non-Spanish-speaking countries. It means “wanker” in Spanish.
nk (1d9030) — 9/7/2020 @ 8:21 pmI’ve got to find (but not particularly urgently) what they call Malacca canes in Greece.
nk (1d9030) — 9/7/2020 @ 8:23 pmThere is no one in this crowd. Everyone knows the game being played.
frosty (f27e97) — 9/7/2020 @ 8:40 pmTuition is $59,260 at USC and, if you’re not living with parentals, the total cost is $79,063.
Not worth it.
Most of them have some kind of scholarship. Often paid for by alumni. That may change, too.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 10:16 pmUntil you apply for a job that doesn’t require you to ask, ‘you want fries with that?!’
Actually, USC is an actual university. Of course the subject matters. Karma will not smile favorably on the Black Studies majors who wound this up.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 10:18 pmAmen. It is not the professor who should suffer consequences here, but rather the students who manufactured this ridiculous nontroversy.
There’s some admin folks who should get the axe, too. Or do they have the real tenure?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/7/2020 @ 10:41 pmThat, Kevin, and their endowment is valued at $5.73 billion. They could cover some tuition with the interest.
Paul Montagu (a2078e) — 9/7/2020 @ 11:01 pmI’m a little jealous. My daughter, Ms. Montagu, went to USD and they had nowhere near the numbers and amounts of scholarships.
LOL.
Dave (1bb933) — 9/7/2020 @ 11:40 pmI speak fluent Chinese, and I can assure you that “nei ge” is indeed a very common word. It means “that”, but it’s also a filler word when you’re trying to think of something, like saying “the…a…the…a…you know, that thing”.
Now I’m going to do a Gawain’s Ghost, and tell a story.
When I lived in the Bay Area, I frequented a rather large Chinese restaurant in San Mateo. (I once saw Loretta Swit in there!) It had a small bar inside, and I liked to eat at the bar, because I was usually alone. It was my personal Cheers, and there was a small group of people who were regulars, and yes, they knew my name.
As a recovering Mormon, I learned how to drink and socialize at that bar. There was only one bartender at a time, but three altogether. They were all middle-aged women from Taiwan, and I became good friends with all of them. I still keep in touch with all of them to varying degrees. One of them is an awesome cook, and we have an agreement to marry in the next life. She can cook anything Chinese.
One time I went to her house and she had a big set-up in the kitchen. There were these rods crisscrossing each other, and there was string hanging down. She was making zongzi, which is traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves and string, or sometimes with reed or other large flat leaves. In the Western world, they are also known as rice dumplings or sticky rice dumplings.
Another one of the bartenders was smoking hot. Curiously, she is divorced and lives alone, while the other two are married and seemingly happy. Go figure.
I made friends with the customers. One of the regulars was a Mexican guy named Mario. He was from Mexico, and had a green card. For some reason he never pursued U.S. citizenship, even though he was smart and spoke great English. Even though he wasn’t a citizen, he bragged about passing as one. He told me he had voted; he also said he had claimed U.S. citizenship at the border when crossing it. Back then, you didn’t need a passport. An oral declaration was sufficient, and if your English was good enough, the immigration officer would just wave you through. We used to do the New York Times crossword puzzle together, and he was better at it than me!
Another one of the regulars was a black guy named Willie. At some point one of the bartenders or the staff said “nei ge nei ge”. Willie picked up on it, and a conversation ensued. They explained that it was actual Chinese, and had nothing to do with him. He was cool with it from then on. In fact, it became a running joke!
Unfortunately, the restaurant closed circa 2000. There was a closing party for the regulars. I’m pretty sure both Mario and Willie were there, as was I. Sadly, Mario died of liver cirrhosis just a few short years after the restaurant closed. The chef committed suicide. As for Willie, I ran into him in downtown San Francisco one day. He was standing in line at the immigration building with his new Filipino wife. I don’t know if Tagalog has any homonyms that black people would find offensive.
norcal (a5428a) — 9/8/2020 @ 12:07 amGreat story, norcal.
Paul Montagu (a2078e) — 9/8/2020 @ 12:27 amThanks.
norcal (a5428a) — 9/8/2020 @ 12:34 amI hope we don’t have to fight a world war anytime soon.
Hoi Polloi (dc4124) — 9/8/2020 @ 5:25 am22. It sn;t een a homophone. To make that into a homophone, you have think of the word n????? with an accent and dropping the R. And besides that the Chinese word has to be pronounced as a native English speaker could.
There is a Hebrew word “nega” that sounds similar. It means a plague, and in particular a discoloration of the skin. That is what it concerns the first time it is mentioned I think, at Leviticus 13:2 (the word plague is a translation of “nega” originally pronounced more like “negag” because the letter “ayin” at the end of the word wasn’t originally silent.
The school should never have entertained the complaint as a personal failing (you could say it is an unfortunate homophone and then think about what to do about it.)
They did it because everybody is afraid of everybody else, like in the French Revolution until they guillotined Robespierre himself. Or like they were afraid of Senator Joseph McCarthy until he was censured.
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 5:58 amThere are two words/syllables in English that are homonyms for vagina in Tagalog; nay and neigh.
felipe (084d77) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:03 amand the colloquial for swamp, is a brothel in some dialects,
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:42 ambut you know quanon, are crazy,
https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/gideon-killed-child-abuse-bill/
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:46 amSammy @ 44. A while back, I told my college-age daughter that Deadpool’s new sidekick is a teenage girl who calls herself Negasonic Nuclear Warhead, and she laughed. Apparently, “nega”, pronounced nei-ga, is a new?/”cool”? variant of the n-word?
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:52 am‘it;ll be fine’
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2020/09/07/heres-where-rioters-learn-their-hate-watch-trainer-say-all-white-people-are-racists-not-human-n902810
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:53 amwatch-trainer-say-all-white-people-are-racists-not-human
Probably some transhomomatriarchal global communist.
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:56 amwell have the harpoons at the ready, just in case,
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:03 amFo shizzle, my [censored].
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:09 amAnother insane story of Cancel Culture in academia:
“ There were a number of comments on the draft, but Romano seems to have been alone among the board’s 24 members to object to phrases like “system of white supremacy” to characterize the whole publishing industry or to accept the notion of critics’ “culpability in the system of erasure of BIPOC voices.”
In an email to other members that was supposed to be internal and confidential, he wrote, “Equating American book publishing with American police departments, as this claim suggests, is ridiculous.” He supported Black Lives Matter, he said, but the draft statement was unfair to the “white publishers that have been working to elevate Black writers, and Black voices, for years.”
The response was furious. Wabuke posted Romano’s email on Twitter even as she announced her resignation from the board because, as she put it, “it is not possible to change these organizations from within, and the backlash will be too dangerous for me to remain.”
Soon thereafter, 15 of the board’s members resigned, some out of solidarity with Wabuke, but others apparently did so because of their disillusionment with what seemed to be the organization’s unstoppable descent into acrimony, and to the fact that Wabuke had herself violated the group’s customary procedures by making the emails public.
Soon emails began calling for Romano’s resignation. Twitter went wild with accusations of racism and bigotry against him. A change.org petition was started by a freelance writer, Emma Eisenberg, who cited Romano’s “racist remarks” and his “sustained campaign of targeting black people and women” at the Critics Circle, demanding that he be fired from his Annenberg School of Communication teaching job at the University of Pennsylvania.”
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/09/08/inside_an_elite_cancel_culture_session_where_leftists_meet_the_enemy_and_it_is__one_of_them_125102.html?mc_cid=230887d791&mc_eid=fba478624c
A secret ‘trial’ to oust a guy for referring to parts of a race pledge as ‘nonsense’.
And why do those seeking to destroy a person’s career always declare that its they who feel ‘unsafe’?
harkin (cd4502) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:11 am_
Read it all.
_
Homophonic pedagogues. (Sigh!) Wha’re ya gonna do?
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:12 amand this is where it comes from, and remember who was his star pupil
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/derrick-bell/
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:12 amGolly gee Beav, I wonder where they get this from…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/references-to-white-men-still-dominate-college-biology-textbooks-survey-says/2020/07/24/3874cfec-cce7-11ea-b0e3-d55bda07d66a_story.html?outputType=amp
NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:17 ambut to use the untouchables analogy, this is the tree where the apples fall into the bucket, the bucket being media, education corporate america,
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:19 amI don’t wanna hear any more florida man jokes,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/08/california-gender-reveal-fire/?hpid=hp_morning-mix-8-12-rr1_mm-genderreveal%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:20 amI didn’t even read that because I so desperately want to believe they mean a sonogram.
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:33 amBuick Lacrosse had a similar issue in Canada.
Time123 (cd2ff4) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:35 am31. Bored Lawyer (7b72ec) — 9/7/2020 @ 8:12 pm
I read since that this is actually not true (an urban legend)
After all, most speakers of a language can distinguish between what is one word and what is two words. Theris a pause in between
I didn’t remember exactly what was the explanation as to the name so now I looked it up some more:
https://www.thoughtco.com/chevy-nova-that-wouldnt-go-3078090
This website doesn’t explain it further – how the story arose, who started it…
This is from snopes in 1999: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:37 amI had a chevy nova, it was pretty sturdy,
https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/08/vindman-not-whistleblower-was-driving-force-behind-impeachment/
the roper or the wing man,
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:41 amit’s like the joke about the monte carlo, only carlos could drive, same for de soto,
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:42 amas new zealand goes,
https://www.kptv.com/news/gov-brown-extends-covid-19-state-of-emergency-until-nov-3/article_93b344d4-ec85-11ea-be43-db4fcbe3930f.html
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:47 amhttps://www.hemmings.com/stories/2017/04/07/fact-check-the-nova-did-not-sell-poorly-in-latin-america-due-to-its-name
From 2011:
https://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141473384/letters-the-myth-of-the-chevy-nova
The Lacrosse story, though, may be true.
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:48 amhttp://zapr.blogspot.com/2008/05/people-who-love-telling-chevy-nova.html
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:58 amMatthew Loop
@matthewloop
How does an investigative journalist without a large following get past the gatekeepers and Big Tech censors in today’s time?
__ _
Sharyl Attkisson
@SharylAttkisson
·
I really don’t. My twitter and Facebook are seriously downthrottled; my stories improperly flagged as false; followers automatically unfollowed. Yet I still exist if only in limited form. 😉
__ _
Just yesterday I posted a reply to a well-known lib’s comment about the riots.
I checked a while later to see if he had responded. He hadn’t, but my comment had six ‘like’s.
I checked again in the evening and it had one like, and that very recent.
They’ll control the narrative any way they can.
harkin (cd4502) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:10 am_
69 Nova, Chevelle and Camaro were all pretty sweet, esp the SS’s.
Cragers required.
harkin (cd4502) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:13 am_
Theres no point to the story, the nova sold reasonably well in foreign markets,
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:25 amhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/health/coronavirus-superspreading-contagion.html
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:30 amMr Montagu wrote:
And one wonders why Lori Loughlin Giannulli tried to get her daughters in on crew scholarships?
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:35 amDCSCA wrote:
I, along with my classmates, were taught the song in elementary school, which was still segregated until my sixth grade year — I was in the fifth grade during the 1963-1964 school year — and the word people was used.
However, I must now demand a new word change: “‘Tis summer, the people are gay,” implies that Kentuckians are homosexual, which we most certainly are not!
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:42 amIt’s the paradox of Western civilization. The literate cultures, that is to say the Greeks and Romans, who had developed a written tradition and made it universally available, introduced literacy to the Western European cultures who, to put it charitably, “relied on oral tradition”. Even though, a couple of thousand years later, the Northern illiterates have become the dominant culture, they still have not lost their superstitious awe of “book larnin'” and the academic racket has had that same length of time to find all the possible ways to exploit that superstitious awe.
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:46 amThe Nova and its Ford category counterpart the Maverick were solid transportation relative to the evil of the respective next level down Vega and Pinto.
urbanleftbehind (c94a6b) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:52 amOracles and caves, filled with oleander, i was surprised how much frank miller hewed to herodotus.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:52 amThe pinto was the one that blew up?
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:54 ammr. frank miller could do that only because mr. herodotus wrote it down, mr. narciso
and mr. julius caesar, too
where are the germanic and celtic bards and druids to tell their side of the story?
they’re dead, that’s where
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:57 amWell i thought they were fantastic, which they might have been, like the battle mastodon.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:01 amYes, and the Vega rusted on first touch of rain amongst other problems.
urbanleftbehind (c94a6b) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:03 am“ The Nova and its Ford category counterpart the Maverick were solid transportation relative to the evil of the respective next level down Vega and Pinto.”
When the Vega and the Pinto came out, our local auto repair magician, Mike the Mechanic, said the American auto industry was finished.
And my buddy’s dad’s Vega, not a Pinto, caught fire on a trip to Sacramento.
harkin (cd4502) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:04 am_
Now the auto induustry has to react against an artificial variable, the oil shock of the 1970s, (does that rhyme here)
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:11 amI drove a Chevy Nova for a long time, and it was wonderfully reliable. People who really knew cars would tell me “Don’t ever get rid of that!” Eventually I had reason to, but it served me well (aside from the absence of AC and suchlike).
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:20 amSpeaking of words that are perfectly safe in one language but eyebrow-raising in another, here’s something that popped up when I was listening to French documentaries.
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:27 amThis extortion scheme made certain south american and arab countries rich, but impoverished most of the world.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:34 amThe Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:35 am
It wasn’t the expense, it was getting in in the first place. They wanted a high reputation school. I am not sure that any scholarships were involved at all.
Here’s why they tried the method they did (on the advice of William Singer)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-college-admissions.html
The book is called , “Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions.” Available Sept. 15.
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:40 amThe Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/8/2020 @ 8:42 am
Although it has roots in a subculture going back much further, the word “gay” didn’t generally acquire the meaning that most often comes to mind now, until 1969. Before that “gay” meant happy or openly joyful. We still have it in the word “gaiety.”
Sammy Finkelman (b66da2) — 9/8/2020 @ 9:42 amWhat gets my goat, TDiK, is that my daughter was pursuing a rowing scholarship at USC, but they turned her down flat because she wasn’t six-foot tall and European (which is where they get most of their top recruits). Ms. Loughlin is 5’6″ on a good day, so it’s unlikely her daughters are much taller, to mention having the grit and stamina to be rowers.
Paul Montagu (a2078e) — 9/8/2020 @ 10:22 ambut it served me well (aside from the absence of AC)
That does not sound like “well” to me. Driving in the hot summer without an AC is rough.
Bored Lawyer (7b72ec) — 9/8/2020 @ 10:28 am@88 — I lived in places where summers aren’t awfully hot, and I could plan road trips to hotter places in cooler months. But I did put considerable effort into finding shade to park in.
I got very attached to that car, though getting some fancier features was quite nice when I did.
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 9/8/2020 @ 11:34 amACLU Official Attacks University For Admitting Nick Sandmann While Professor Denounces His “Anti-Intellectual Views”
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/09/08/aclu-official-attacks-university-for-admitting-nick-sandmann-while-professor-promises-to-monitor-his-conduct/
__
But don’t worry. An ‘Assistant Professor and Diversity Scholar’ has promised to ‘closely monitor’ Sandmann.
harkin (c314b6) — 9/8/2020 @ 1:44 pm_
it lasted till the spring of 2001, when the damage from the no name storm was too severe,
bolivar de gris (7404b5) — 9/8/2020 @ 1:50 pmThere really is a Transylvania University! You would never have guessed where, either.
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:22 pmWell maybe Dana of prepositional phrases can be the watcher of the self appointed watcher (sure it’s not Klink?).
urbanleftbehind (c94a6b) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:34 pmhttps://www.wane.com/news/12-year-old-suspended-in-colorado-over-toy-gun-seen-in-virtual-class/
Schoolkid flashes a green, orange, black toy gun during his online class session. Teacher calls the police to respond to his home without contacting his parents. Kid is suspended from school. Teacher assumed it was a toy.
You’d think remote classes would alleviate some of this intense pressure people put on others, but I guess it’s really just documenting everything, making life a little harder.
Dustin (1ea540) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:35 pmA lot of famous Confederates, and a Chicago mayor, went there.
nk (1d9030) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:40 pmI have a post up here about the incident, Dustin.
Dana (292df6) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:42 pmGah, sorry Dana!
Dustin (1ea540) — 9/8/2020 @ 6:51 pmIt’s funny, I always thought it was a bad Hollywood meme, but Japanese really do interject
“…so, so, so, so, so…”
in a conversation when they’re surprised by something and momentarily at a loss for words.
Disclaimer: No protected groups were harmed in the making of this post.
Dave (1bb933) — 9/8/2020 @ 7:32 pmSome guy who had been left behind wrote:
I (briefly) dated a girl who drove a Pinto, and her joke was always, “Pintos explode from the rear!” The fuel tank was positioned so that a rear-end collision could burst the tank.
But the Vega was worse, not from a safety standpoint, but they came out with this ridiculous aluminum block engine. That thing warped under heat, and there was a recall in which steel sleeves were fitted into the cylinders, but they gave junk a bad name.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/10/2020 @ 6:03 amOur Windy City barrister wrote:
Transylvania College was founded in 1780, and is one of the oldest colleges in the United States. Jefferson Davis is a Transylvania alumnus, and I have eaten at the old Jefferson Davis Inn, a restaurant/bar which used to be located on the first floor of the building where Mr Davis roomed when a student at Transy, 1821-1823. Alas! The JDI relocated since I had been there, and finally went out of business several years ago.
Don Lane, who was the basketball coach at my old high school — I was not on the basketball team — wound up as the head basketball coach for Transy from 1975 to 2001, and was succeeded by his son Brian.
In 1975 I dated a UK student, total hippie chick, who lived in a student slums converted-into-apartments house on Broadway, just down the street from Transy. And the best food in the world was served at Loretta’s Korner Kitchen, down the street from Transy. That’s gone, too.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/10/2020 @ 6:14 amMr left behind mentioned “Dana of prepositional phrases.” Alas! While our esteemed host had allowed me to change screen names by post, as long as I wasn’t sock-puppeting, the site software now trashes any posts I make under any screen name other than The Dana in Kentucky.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/10/2020 @ 6:17 amAn uninspired lawyer wrote:
In July of 1972, whilst driving from the Bluegrass State to Los Angeles — after a girl, or course — I crossed Death Valley in a 1962 Ford Fairlane, six cylinder, three-on-the-tree. Yes, I drove it at night.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/10/2020 @ 6:20 amAnother example o f how a word can be split – but people would in fact understand whether you were talking about two or more make drivers or a particular woman driver.
Q. Who crushed the bicycle that was chained there by the curb?
Car men
or
Carmen.
Those two answers would be pronounced differently.
Sammy Finkelman (0e8c82) — 9/13/2020 @ 1:21 pm