Weather in NC

[Seth Milner]

Not that anybody crawling through snowbanks cares, but rainfall in south Florida has been 12.25 inches so far in January. Average for January is just under 2 inches. Average for July, the peak of "rainy" season is 10 inches. Glub, glub, glub. But at least it's not frozen.

I'm surprised, with all that water, that Florida still has surface terra firma! (BTW . . . I care, I really do.)

[billy.pilgrim]

Not that anybody crawling through snowbanks cares, but rainfall in south Florida has been 12.25 inches so far in January. Average for January is just under 2 inches. Average for July, the peak of "rainy" season is 10 inches. Glub, glub, glub. But at least it's not frozen.

I'm surprised, with all that water, that Florida still has surface terra firma! (BTW . . . I care, I really do.)

the sand really soaks it up. You can leave a garden hose wide open - an hour later there may be a wet spot 4 feet across

[Vrede too]

The snowbanks won't last long, 60's early next week.

It's not regional and it's not new - no more recent than the "spy" meaning - while it is extremely offensive. Check a dictionary.

I would not name my black dog "Coon", "Darkie", "Ghetto", "Jungle Bunny", "Lawn Jockey", "Liverlips", "Pickaninny", "Porch Monkey", "Sambo", "Spear-Chucker", "Uncle Tom", etc., most of which have other meanings, either.

That said, I can definitely believe that Seth Milner was just too stupid to know what he was doing. Whatever, he's forever gonna have a hard time saying his dog's name with out thinking of me and probably won't say it at all if he's around any blacks, but maybe he has no intention of socializing with them.

Stumbled on this:
"Canadian" - Used as a masked replacement for 'Nigger'.
"Canigger" - Combination of Canadian and Nigger for black Canadians.
Who knew?

[rstrong]

I would not name my black dog "Coon", "Darkie", "Ghetto", "Jungle Bunny", "Lawn Jockey", "Liverlips", "Pickaninny", "Porch Monkey", "Sambo", "Spear-Chucker", "Uncle Tom", etc, most of which have other meanings, either.

In each case - except ghetto - those are all racist and offensive words first and foremost.

"Spook" on the other hand means "ghost" or "to frighten", and is slang for a "spy." These definitions are by far the most common usage, and are not at all racist or offensive. It's simply not in the same category.

I DID check dictionaries. Google's single-word lookup dictionary definition, lists the racist definition as regional (US). Merriam-Webster, doesn't mention that definition at all.

[billy.pilgrim]

The snow won't last long, 60's early next week.

It's not regional and it's not new - no more recent than the "spy" meaning - while it is extremely offensive. Check a dictionary.

I would not name my black dog "Coon", "Darkie", "Ghetto", "Jungle Bunny", "Lawn Jockey", "Liverlips", "Pickaninny", "Porch Monkey", "Sambo", "Spear-Chucker", "Uncle Tom", etc., most of which have other meanings, either.

That said, I can definitely believe that Seth Milner was just too stupid to know what he was doing. Whatever, he's forever gonna have a hard time saying his dog's name with out thinking of me and probably won't say it at all if he's around any blacks, but maybe he has no intention of socializing with them.

Stumbled on this:
"Canadian" - Used as a masked replacement for 'Nigger.'
"Canigger" - Combination of Canadian and Nigger for black Canadians.
Who knew?

In the 70s I had a huge long haired solid black female german shepherd who loved everyone. Lady mostly stayed in the front yard and was watchful of the fairly common foot traffic on our country road. It took awhile for the neighbors to accept the hippies with the black dog that our black neighbors called Spook.

Spook has 3 vastly different meanings and I'm not so sure that Spook would be offensive unless used as an obvious slur against a black person, or a ghost.

[Vrede too]

It's common for oppressed groups to reclaim derogatory nicknames. That doesn't make it okay for the oppressors to retain them. It really is different when "nigger" comes out of a black mouth than when it's uttered by a white.

Ah, I thought you meant "regional" (US South). A different Merriam-Webster page says that the same-aged 'spy' meaning is also "chiefly US".

Which is "most common" doesn't matter to me, the racial epithet is common enough.

... That said, I can definitely believe that Seth Milner was just too stupid to know what he was doing....

Or that he was perfectly aware of the well known connotation and didn't care or even got pleasure from it. We'll never know that one for sure, he's a serial liar and a coward when caught. A Spook and his Master.

I maintain that decent people don't risk such obvious opportunities for giving offense. Would any of you really name your black dog "Spook"?

[rstrong]

Which is "most common" doesn't matter to me, the racial epithet is common enough.

Not here. Growing up, other than "ghost" or "scare", "Spook" was the name of a character in "The Wizard of Id." I think I first encountered the "spy" definition in Tom Clancy novels.

[Vrede too]

You didn't grow up south of the Mason-Dixon Line in the 1960s, or in the US at all, right?

[rstrong]

You didn't grow up south of the Mason-Dixon Line in the 1960s, or in the US at all, right?

Correct. As I said, the racist definition seems to be regional. Not a good reason to stop its common, non-offensive usage.

Likewise, I'll keep using "tea bag" for its common definition regarding making tea.

[Vrede too]

Would you name your dog "Tea Bag" and if you did would you be surprised if not all folks assumed you were referring to the beverage?

Just out of curiosity, Snowback, I looked up The Racial Slur Database: Canadians. The list is much shorter than The Racial Slur Database: Blacks.

[rstrong]

Would you name your dog "Tea Bag" and if you did would you be surprised if not all folks assumed you were referring to the beverage?

Unlike "Spook", "Tea Bag" would be a very strange name for a dog. So no, I wouldn't call it that.

But if I did, I would assume that most people think of the beverage. It's BY FAR the most common definition. For those rare few who think of the offensive definition FIRST, who the hell cares about them?

[rstrong]

The Racial Slur Database: Blacks.

Which proves O Really's point: "A fun list to compile would be things you can't buy or use because somebody somewhere has used the term disparagingly." That's a whole lot of common words in your list, also used in offensive terms.

And since there are long lists for blacks and Canadians, then presumably there are long lists for all the other racial groups and nationalities, and no doubt sexual preferences, careers, disabilities etc. Making for one VERY long list of names that you can't use for your dog.

[Vrede too]

Many of them are not as well known as racial slurs as 'Spook' is and again, it's a black dog. If I was a Canadian groundskeeper or fireman, I would not be shocked if many didn't assume that my dog, Hoser, was given a merely occupation-related name.

... Which is "most common" doesn't matter to me, the racial epithet is common enough....

Similarly, c'mon, would you really feel that comfortable shouting "Tea Bag" in your neighborhood, in a gay district or at a Ted Cruz rally?

[rstrong]

If I was a Canadian groundskeeper or fireman, I would not be shocked if many didn't assume that my dog, Hoser, was given a merely occupation-related name.

Well of course; Hoser was never a word until SCTV made it one.

Similarly, c'mon, would you really feel that comfortable shouting "Tea Bag" in your neighborhood, in a gay district or at a Ted Cruz rally?

In my neighborhood? Why not? At a Ted Cruz rally I'd explain the Tea Party connection, and the beverage. (While avoiding mentioning that the original Boston Tea Party protested the *lowering* of taxes.)

[Seth Milner]

This is too funny. Ol' Spook done went and bit Vrede too on the ass, in proxy !


waa....waa...waaaa !

I would not name my black dog "Coon", "Darkie", "Ghetto", "Jungle Bunny", "Lawn Jockey", "Liverlips", "Pickaninny", "Porch Monkey", "Sambo", "Spear-Chucker", "Uncle Tom", etc., most of which have other meanings, either.
Well, that's you. I wouldn't name my cat, if I had one, any of those names either; although I did know someone once that had a Mynah bird named Sambo because he was all black with a butter colored thingy on the side of his face and stuff. . .

That said, I can definitely believe that Seth Milner was just too stupid to know what he was doing.
With that being said, I can definitely believe that Vrede too is just too stupid to know what he's saying, because I revealed earlier where Spook got his name.

Whatever, he's forever gonna have a hard time saying his dog's name with out thinking of me and probably won't say it at all if he's around any blacks, but maybe he has no intention of socializing with them.
So this is what this petty squabbling over my dog's name is all about? You're only wanting me to remember you? If it makes you feel any better, I do think of you every time I go to the can. Also FYI, I grew up around Black folks, some of my family members are married to Blacks, and every one of them, except maybe two, have seen, petted, and played with Spook. Your pissing and moaning over the old boy's name is a complete fail, and purely baiting to satisfy your twisted narcissism. Grow up and get a life.

BTW, I hear it's supposed to rain, maybe a few flurries.

[O Really]

I would not name my black dog "Coon"...

Even if he's a Black and Tan Coonhound?

[Seth Milner]

•Vrede too: pissin' in the wind.


Spook; Meanings Of:


People
•Someone involved in espionage
•Per Spook (born 1939), Norwegian fashion designer
•Spook (nickname), a list of people
•A racial slur for black people

Places
•Spook Cave, a flooded cave in Iowa
•Spook Hill, a gravity hill in Florida

Arts and entertainment
•Fictional characters
•Spook (comics), a DC Comics enemy of Batman
•A character from The Wardstone Chronicles (published in the United States as The Last Apprentice)
•A character in the comic strip The Wizard of Id
•A character from Top Cat

Film
•Spooks (cartoon), a 1930 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short
•Spooks! (1953), a Three Stooges short ***see link below***
•Spooks: The Greater Good, a British 2015 spy film

Music
•The Spooks, an American hip-hop band
•Spooks (album), a 2010 album by The Beautiful Girls
•The Spook, A 2015 song by KSHMR & Basskillers.
•Seth Milner's dog's bark (music to his ears)

Television
•Spooks, a UK series broadcast from 2002 to 2011 (called MI-5 in some countries)
•Spooks: Code 9, a UK series broadcast in 2008

Other
•Spooks (video game), a 1985 video game
•Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005), a humorous, non-fiction book by Mary Roach
•The name of Seth Milner's black Labrador retriever

In the military
•"The Spook", emblem of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, a United States Navy fighter-bomber
•Mine Protected Combat Vehicle, a Zimbabwean armored fighting vehicle nicknamed the "Spook"

Other uses
•Spook Bridge, an abandoned bridge over the Withlacoochee River, Georgia, United States

[Seth Milner]

I would not name my black dog "Coon"...

Even if he's a Black and Tan Coonhound?

That's racist. Same as the name Washington Redskins is offensive, The Offended Ones of America (est. 2014) will be petitioning the courts to forbid calling a dog that contains any black in it's coloring as a "Coon hound." They wanted "raccoon dog", but there is already an animal with that name, and besides that, PETA wants to banish the sport of raccoon hunting.

[O Really]

Damn, I thought you had made Vrede's point when I saw "the Spooks" a hip-hop band. Surely they were black guys calling themselves "spooks" because they were black. Sorta like NWA. And they were black... http://allhiphop.com/2003/09/22/former- ... er-killed/

But then I find, "The members of the group got together in 1994, taking their name from the novel by Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat By The Door, which is about spies.

[Seth Milner]

"The Spook", mascot of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter jet

According to Vrede too, military personnel wearing a uniform with this emblem in public view is a racist.