In my experience this is part of the larger effort to redefine the entire Confederacy as a symbol of southern pride devoid of its racist history. I can't tell if it is simply misguided ignorance or a fig leaf to cover racist apologetics.

At some point the one's experience represents a statistically significant sample size. My wife grew up in the former Soviet satellite nation, I know of which the referenced Estonian speaks. Of course these experiences aren't universal to all Russians, and I think most would acknowledge that, but certain expectations…

Thank you for this. I find it hard because there is a lot of homogenizing and not a lot of communication.

But wait! Script writing is alive and well in Russia! No one handwrites Cyrillic print letters. If we don't keep cursive alive we'll have a script-writing-gap! Call the Pentagon!

Presumably the owner could program in any number - parents, best friends, brute squad. It would have been better if the text had read "emergency contact number," but when there is so much what the fuckery with this concept I'd rather save my powder for a more substantive objection.

It is not just a semantic point - as long as we talk about rape in terms of a product of lust then society can continue to blame victims for inciting their rape by engendering lust in their attackers. Rape uses sex to assert power, not the other way around. Until society internalizes that, what has been termed rape…

I'm missing something.

Taco party wins, because I can describe parties as either an Oktoberfest or a Cinco de Mayo. There's no seasonal celebration that is stereotypically associated clams that I can reference.

It's not the only good thing.

Then we can share in our amusement, though I wish I observed this reaction more frequently. When an extrovert gets butthurt over a generalization that doesn't reflect on extroverts the introverts should point out:

It's not pointless if my wife prefers it. I let her do it rather than dislocate my shoulder trying to do it myself.

Thank you. I have to confess this was surprisingly rewarding. Partially because I'm a language geek, and partially because I enjoyed watching the vitriol become exhausted during the exchange.

In my mind, it's not particularly outrage worthy (Canadians - polite, even when sexist!), but to my mind it is a touch problematic when you couldn't imagine the same being said with the gender swapped, i.e. would he have told a boy, "...you're a great cook. You're going to make a wonderful husband for somebody"? …

Sure, pejorative can be an adjective as well as a noun, but that doesn't make your usage any more correct. A pejorative is a word or phrase that expresses of contempt or disapproval. The word pejorative is either used to describe the meaning of word (adjective) or to refer to a word (noun). Having contempt (verb)…

I'm having loads of fun arguing with him, but I'm the sort that listens to 'A Way With Words' on NPR. He's being resoundingly obtuse, but that is apparently his pejorative.

I'm sure verbing nouns is what all the cool kids do these days, but that doesn't make it acceptable English, living language or no. An expression is a noun, expressing something is an action.

I have never in my life heard pejorative used that way, and this word is no stranger to me. A pejorative is a word or expression, specifically one that worsens the noun it acts on - hence the Latin root: peiorare ("make worse") I'll totally cop to looking that up.

You meant to say "You can hate it all you want, that's your derogatory expression"? I'll be honest, I don't follow. Apparently I am not alone.

Whether they rape other inmates remains to be seen.

I should also add, if milk is a serious problem letting your tea cool also reduces the absorption of tannins. That said, a drop of milk is all you really need.