I’m admittedly ignorant of how Meghan Trainor sounds, but is softening Rs and Ls a specifically cultural sound? I seem to remember being taught to avoid certain hard consonant sounds when singing, tho it was just Junior High & High School choir. (This is also partly why British singers sound like they sing with an…

To be fair to Stephen A: I was born in 1977. I vividly remember A) All in the Family (Archie Bunker!) and B) “Do you believe in miracles?” 1980 U.S. Hockey Team, and C) repeat airings of Roots & Roots the Next Generation (I got soooooooo mad at the white assholes in those shows.) I was around 2-4 years old for most of…

Re. grip: babies can have an incredibly strong grip, mainly so they can latch onto Mommy. Also babies tend to be able to instinctively swim to a certain extent, tho I wouldn’t try ANY of this stupid shit myself. (i freak out if a kid climbs more than 1 foot off the ground)

This is correct. French Louisianians descend from French Canadians. However, they weren’t so much criminals or undesirables (a’la Australia) rather, they were more like political refugees fleeing from Canada (from Hudson Bay Area I think, down the Mississippi River) because France kinda lost that war.