"..pointing out your comment history is substance."

That'd sure make a lot more sense. The original quote was from one of the real-time feeds from the trial, and probably wasn't checked against the court recorders (who seem to have difficulty as well).

Thanks. Pretty eloquent defense — albeit one that may or may not have anything to do w/Ms Jeantel's actual thoughts and motivations. Maybe I'm still trying to reconcile the stoic, sullen martyr-vibe you propose w/her Twit-pic of her "Court nails!"...

I thought it was a useful thought experiment.

"Excoriating" is a nifty word which has nothing to do with my comment.

There are indeed two categories of non-native speakers using a different language at home: a) those who master multiple forms of English, including the standard form; and b) those who don't.

Yeah, some tin-hat theorist is probably off and running with that angle already.

Should I put "code switching" in caps next time?

I can't get past that idea that if a friend got shot, it'd ever acceptable to twist and turn every which way - starting with the friend's parents — to avoid telling my story and helping w/the prosecution of his assailant.

Riiiightt.... she doesn't actually bear thinking about as something relevant to your world, eh?

I'm curious: If she were your daughter, would you be feeling good about yourself as a parent?

I'm still trying to understand her "Creole IS Spanish" statement in the trial.

If I were a teenage girl, you'd be making me feel real unsafe right about now.

Awesome explanation... though perhaps more convincing on the "trying to pull one over" if they'd been asked questions about actuarial tables or the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk or "what is flubber?"

"Jewel-eyed snow witch" was so good that I actually submitted the comment before reading the whole article — including the "1,000 ravens" line... which is top-notch as well.

"Jewel-eyed snow witch" needs to become the standard Bachmann epiphet.

One of the Greatest Living Canadians... yet seems kinda unknown in the States. It's a shame.

Bit easier to travel light when one's event-loaner options are infinite, isn't it?

Could we get a little more on how Dr Seuss enables the patriarchy please, Laura?

How many of us loved classic books as kids about 19th-century kids, German kids, kids of the opposite gender, Norwegian troll-people, orphans, or a dozen other variations of "stuff that's nothing like my own life"? It seemed to work pretty well.