I'll match my time on construction sites against anyone here...so yup, I've seen old-style food trucks. Choosing not to take food, if the available options suck, isn't the same as "being fed". (And when did traditional, Mexican-style tacos become such a health drama? They're damned good for you.)

That is fairly true for processed/ready-to-eat food — but it's not even remotely true for basic ingredients and staples, is it? Aged porterhouse isn't "better" for you than pork butt or chicken thighs, despite costing 10x more. Lentils are lentils, whether you buy them in a 50-lb sack or pay 10x as much per lb to…

"Being fed" is an interesting choice of verb. Is the implication the poor tend to be in institutional settings where they have limited/no choice? Or is there some other nuance?

It's a famous line from one of Britain's best-known (and famously misanthropic) poets, Philip Larkin.

I always enjoy earnest undergrads citing "privilege" in arguments whilst misspelling it - so it's exciting to see the practice spread to the stridently MA-equipped as well. (And bonus points for "it's" as a possessive! Very meta to eschew all possible SE in a sentence while attempting to argue from academic…

Catchy. Do you pay your writing team in PBnJ sandwiches?

Yes I have, and yes they do. Anyone looking to work outside those regions - or even some sectors within them - faces substantial obstacles without cultivating some additional language skills.

"Performance" in the standard, Goffman-eseque sense of the word (viz. "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" etc).

Does the MA in Rhetoric syllabus cover the notion that "But I have a Masters degree" is generally doomed as a debating stratagem?

Would you be in favor of intensive education in standard English for low-income school districts if, say, kids in rich districts got an intro to non-standard variants?

Most educators might point out that starting at 27 is a little different in childhood, as far as language-acquisition skills go. Nor is the standard "perfection" - being able to earn multiple degree and take employment allowing for continued education seems more than adequate.

You're suggesting that third year of undergrad is roughly an appropriate time for a native-born, non-native speaker to master standard English?

Scarper? If I missed some smoking comment of yours, sorry - the little "notifications" thing only shows the half-dozen most recent ones, far as I've ever seen. Maybe you got pushed too far back in the queue to be visible?

Junior college? That's like my dream. I just have to get accepted at one. And enroll in some classes.

Funny you say that - I've lived in three different countries where I spoke the language well enough to get by, but not enough to earn a good living in the local tongue. Fortunately I was young, able to work mostly via Internet (in standard English, as it were), and it didn't matter. I was certainly acutely aware of…

It appears that she sought - at least within the last year or so - to join the law-enforcement community (via Crim Justice at U Miami)... so it's not entirely clear to us that her heart was set on a) a life of quiet anonymity wholly within her own Haitian community or b) having as little as possible to do w/the legal…

Haha... I love the "valid" in quotes. I take it that's a pejorative for you - it implies "lacking wild emotion" or "insufficient ideological fever" or some such?

You made enough assumptions, you finally got one right. Way to go, sport.

You can't get past the idea because it was never expressed. To the extent she's done things I personally find hard to justify, they were all prior to the trial.

It'd be awfully interesting to see how that played out... not least due to her inability (or unwillingness, if you prefer) to read back her own testimony from the court transcript.