Watertown, NY, USA . "Public Square" (vintage, date unknown) but the monument is honoring veterans of the American Civil War so the date of the image is late 1800s

Friday, January 5, 2018

(2:12 PM UTC-5)
(-4*F......windchill -23*F....not snowing but because of the wind the loose snow is blowing around a bit)
(listening to Beethoven's "Christ on the Mount of Olives")
  Out of the vending machines I got a snack bag of Cheetos and a Doctor Pepper and it reminded me of something I ran into in my past
  Now although I haven't mentioned it lately one of my favorite areas of study is etymology.....all started in college, when I took Koine Greek, and masoretic  Hebrew......Koine Greek is the Greek of the New Testament, as to the masoretic Hebrew....ancient Hebrew has no vowels...but basically a vowel sound occured, I guess what seemed natural, the masoretic text, a group of jewish scholars added the vowel points so you can tell what vowel to use.....now we didn't call that etymology..we called it word studies..the origins and development of the meaning.....in other words etymology
  But as I believe because of that.....and the practical experience of going to college with kids from not only western New York State ( where I grew up ) but all over the East Coast, and some from the central U.S.of A...........I got fascinated by regional dialects.......there must be an invisible line of demarcation between western NYS and eastern NYS because where I grew up we called carbonated drinks "pop"...and the term "soda" was reserved for an "ice cream soda".....Can't recall whether the confuse the first time was mine or theirs' but it was funny...because where I live now it's "soda".......however I sometimes refer to it as "Soda Pop".....
  But 3rd year college had moved to Pennsylvania..another "soda" state.....but I had one suite mate from down east Maine..and another from the hills of North Carolina....what with the regional accents and regional vocabulary we literally had to translate for them for the first couple of months........and the kid from Maine added to the pop/soda controversy he called it "tonic"........which I got charge out of.......I always thought that tonic (water) was what you mixed with Vodka or Gin.....but it was a very strict fundamental college..I keep that previous thought to myself.......I always thought that their unspoken rule was "We don't drink, smoke, or chew and we don't go with girls that do"
  The obvious question I was then as I have remained a free thinker.....so how did I end up in that college.....frankly I don't know......and had never really encountered the single mindedness of the strict fundamentalist......but the course of study was what I was looking for, and I dealt with the rest..in the only way I could......during the day I was the mild mannered boy from western NYS......my ulta-ego.....at night I revealed my true identity "Prank Man"......although later on I did get into some knock down drag out discussions (okay arguments) with both fellow students and with some of the professors...I'm still confused (not) as to why I was asked to leave after my 4th year (5 year program for A THB) and left with a BRE......

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