Hey Marijke, this doesn't piss you off, does it?

you said I was 19... how could that piss me off?

thanks!

but the "coolest kid" bit is all a lie....

Coolest kid on the block? Please. Marijke can take the entire Parkdale area at least!

Marijke roxx!!

She lives on my block, making her the coolest kid on it. You're right though Alex, I should have been more mindful of the NKOTB connotation and gone with Parkdale.

ack! NKOTB! flashbacks to Boston high school days!
(reason #1 that I'll never join a 12-step program: I can't deal with years of having "Step by step/ooh baby/gonna' get to you gi-irl" going through my head)

hey, alex! glad you dropped by!

off to research the origin of the word "poontang" now (seriously). anyone have any suggestions?

Give Ted Nugent full credit.

Give Ted Nugent full credit.

That wasn't a double post, it was just for emphasis.

"The Noodge" gets his due for sure, but...

In French, "putin" means whore, and "poutine" is a very sexy dish. When I hear "poontang", I think of an anglo redneck good-ol'-boy weekending in Quebec, trying his best to make good with the locals. For example: Such a person could be heard to utter, "Shit DAWG, buddy--where's the POONTANG at!?" in the hopes that his use of the word "POONTANG"--which he honestly believes is how you say "whore" or "loose woman" in the native tongue of his hosts--would endear him to the Quebecois populace. And who knows? Maybe it'll work and some charmed, particularly helpful bon-vivant will recommend him to an above-average prostitute where he can have his carnal desires sated. Or maybe a sympathetic soul will, thinking the American hungry, direct him to a reputable neighborhood fry stand. Of course, it's most likely that he'll be treated to a buggerin' and a handjob from a 300lb, bushy-bearded biker in a King Crimson t-shirt, since it's common knowledge that all French guys are fags who like prog.

Dog, take it easy with the French guys are fags shit, even if you're being ironic. I knew this guy named Chris Uranus (I swear) but obviously after the 4th grade or whatever he insisted it be pronounced "YewRahNees". Anyway, Chris U was the worst. He had squinty eyes and baked bean teeth and he was touchy-feely. One time he was talking about what a fabulous time he'd had in Montreal. He was sitting with a woman who he didn't know so well and me and a few other people. So he starts going on about this "Poonteen" restaurant where you could get any kind of "Poonteen" you wanted. "They had Greek Poonteen, french Poonteen, Chinese Poonteen, every different kind of Poonteen you could want." Chris Uranus often looked like a total asshole. I bet he doesn't even know who Ted Nugent is nor would he know about Nugent's penultimate hit which launched the term "poontang" into the public lexicon.

OK, here's the deal with poontang (or at least as much of the deal as I could find). The Canadian Oxford Dict. says that it is indeed an alteration of the French putain, meaning whore, though oddly, it doesn't list "female genitalia" as a possible meaning (which is how I've always thought of it), but rather simply "sexual intercourse" or "a woman regarded as a means of sexual gratification".
this site (scroll about halfway down) suggests that the alteration of putain happened in Louisiana, though the reason for it is pretty sketchy. They also list it as coming from the Chinese poon tai or poon kai, but I couldn't find any evidence to back that up (and I don't know what those words mean). This site seems to take for granted that it was American GIs in WWII who coined the term.

For a totally different perspective, there's this guy, who suggests that poontang could be derived from a Southern dessert called "pudding tang"... He also suggests that the term pre-dates WWII by providing the lyrics to two songs (one from the '20s and one from the '30s) which use the word poontang as a gender-neutral term....

Being French, I'm more than a little ashamed for having misspelled "putain". Terrible. But I do remain nominally gratified for having intuited* poontang's likely origin. As for my "French guys are fags" comment, I apologize for any eyebrows I may have raised, though I personally find nothing objectionable about fags or fans of progressive rock per se (such as the latter-day King Crimson), and thought the combination of these two French Canadian stereotypes too beautiful to repress.

*And hats off to the 34% of the Usage Panel (you know who you are) who accept my usage of the verb "to intuit":

"The use of intuit as a verb is well established in reputable writing, but some critics have objected to it. Only 34 percent of the Usage Panel accepts it in the sentence Claude often intuits my feelings about things long before I am really aware of them myself. This lack of acceptance is often attributed to the verb's status as a back-formation from intuition, but in fact the verb has existed as long as other back-formations, such as diagnose and donate, that are now wholly acceptable. The source of the objections most likely lies in the fact that the verb is often used in reference to more trivial sorts of insight than would be permitted by a full appreciation of the traditional meaning of intuition. In this connection, a greater percentage of the Panel, 46 percent, accepts intuit in the sentence Mathematicians sometimes intuit the truth of a theorem long before they are able to prove it." (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Can I now change the title of this post to read "The Voice Of Reason's Secret Blog?"

Pleeeease?

Think how great this poon-tang talk's been, and consider that you'll sort of have a blog, but you'll never be hounded if you feel like shutting up for month's on end.

Also, you'd never have to bother with titles - a serious plus!

Why, you might even like it-- then you could get your own! (Or, actually, I forbid you from doing this.)

Am I - at this point - just plain pushing my luck?

no, you can't. not yet. think about it: TheDiscourse has made more comments in this thread than I have. I've only made two comments.

Two comments do not a "secret blog" make.

That's too much pressure -- give it time. This thread has my name branded on it, so I'm likely to consider it my little corner of y/blog anyway. But it all has to happen very naturally and organically. (God, was I raised by hippies or what?)

Besides, call me egocentric, but I'm really enjoying seeing my name splashed across this page... it's just looks so good.

gah! I had actually made three comments before the last one, not two.

Welcome to the Marijke ghetto (nestled in the poorer regions of Y-ville in southern Sankeyland) -- where math is just a suggestion.

Shit - knew I shouldn't have asked.

naw, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that you asked.

I just have to make you work for it a little...

You'd have felt warmer and fuzzier if you'd just seen the title had been changed without your permission, no? I think that's the way these things work. My sister seemed terrified when I told her I'd posted a link to her site, but then said when she realized people were looking at what she was doing she felt the joy of a certain responsibility come over her, and she thanked me for rocking her world. I won't change the title, but you know, you own this, if you care to...

Also, just to emphasize this, Dicourse and AlbertRoss had great theories, but you came in with truth.

Which is not to say I'm not awed by Albertross's intuition. Seriously, dude, that was something!

Spend extra time on hobby. Get plenty of rolling papers.