Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Father in Law does not like connotation of "Dude"

What follows is a letter from my girlfriend's dad, the title was his original subject line... he makes a good case, with some very nice writing.
"Hey Fletcher, checked out your blog via this post and it is really intelligent and interesting. As Noel will tell you, I am hypercritical, but always with a positive end in site. I hope you won't take this criticism personally, but for me connotations that follow the word "dude" are not positive. From Wikipedia: One of the earliest books to use the word was The Home and Farm Manual, written by Jonathan Periam in 1883. In that work, Periam used the term "dude" several times to denote an ill-bred and ignorant, but ostentatious, man from the city. The rest of the Wiki article is informative also. Of course the most common understanding of the term is of a "dandy", an effeminate male who is consumed with fashion and clothing. But the most damaging to your blog image (from my perspective) is the dumb stoner connotation. The use of the J in Magic doesn't help to dispel this. I know you are intelligent and your esoteric/80's vision of the word probably trumps my historical one, with most of your blog followers not even thinking about it twice. - Just an old man ranting about the vagaries of youth." – Dad Dude (Noel Vietor)

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