You crazy Aussies!
Anecdote alert:
While doing a bit of idle work in the British Library I came across sheet music for a song called “My Coon is a Lobster” from the early 20th century (I want to say 1903 but don’t quote me on that) by a man called Arthur Dunn. I only regret that the Amazon link above doesn’t show the “quaint” cartoon that graced the cover.
From the text one got the view that Mr Dunn felt that “coon” was indeed a word that black people regularly used to refer to themselves. However, one also suspects that Mr Dunn was an idiot so I wouldn’t use this particular song (and others by the same author/composer in the same vein) as any sort of sociologically valid marker.
BTW a “lobster”, according to the song, is a lazy man who won’t work and just lives off his wife’s earnings. Mr Dunn may well have invented this term, which fortunately has not caught on in the general vernacular.
Just thought you’d like to know.
Also, the Google search for “My Coon is a Lobster” brought up “Did you mean ‘My Colon is a Lobster’?” Ouch.
BTW, I’m surprised that coon is worse than nigger, as Cartman can get away with saying the former on South Park (although he doesn’t seem to know what it means.)
That’s kind of strong praise, isn’t it? 
All of his Pit threads go like this. At least the ones I’ve seen. Regardless, I’m tempted to thank hm because I did learn something from this thread. I learned that there’s a war brewing between grocery store temp workers and full-time book store employees. I never would have imagined that. I guess everyone needs to look down on somebody.
On the coon/nigger relative scaling: it’s complicated. I’d say in some respects, nigger is worse than coon. But there are contexts where nigger will be used, for lack of a better word, affectionately (usually between Black people), which never happens with coon.
When I applied for my first job in high school, they were at the top of my list. Unfortunately, they weren’t hiring part-time folks. I cried.
They are kind of the anti-walmart in that respect. They don’t like to hire part time people at all.
Each employee is given a section of the store to be responsible for. That person prices the books, decides when to discount them if they’ve been there too long, and when to send the book to clearance. So a lot of part time employees wouldn’t work out very well.
Before my wife worked there, I found a couple of copies of “The curse of lono” in the locked up collectors cabinet and was lamenting to the guy at checkout that I didn’t care about the collectors value, I just wanted to read it. It turned out that it was the guys section and he walked over, unlocked the case, and marked down rougher copy of the two to a level that I could afford.
So he’s a Ron?
I once saw a college yearbook, from 1918. It was from Kansas State Agricultural College, now Kansas State University.
Being as it was published right at the end of WWI there were a lot of pictures of guys in uniforms, and many other military references throughout the book.
One cartoon invited people to guess what the letters SATC stood for. (I thing the answer was State Army Training Corps, a predecessor to ROTC). The cartoon itself was a picture of a tall, skinny, black man in an ill-fitting suit. Big lips, buggy eyes and all.
An average sized white guy stood looking up at him, and his guess was Such A Tall Coon. Those of us contemporary folks looking at the book were aghast. “How in the heck did they get away with something like that, even then?”
Mom’s worked there for something like 15 years. And has benefits, naturally. And a house full of books. More books than bookcase space. At least one room completely devoted to books.
Uh. For Half Price Books. Not for… um, anything else.
Or blow darts, or a harpoon gun…
Remember, the cops tried to frame his best friend, and he was able to tell them, without any lab testing whatsoever, that there were NO TRACES OF BLOOD, AT ALL. Seriously, people. Fuck all that forensic shit.
Right - he is better than the police and doesn’t need those bastards! And yet he is so sensitive that he was moved to tears by anonymous message board posters pointing out obvious holes in his story. To tears, Guin, to tears! He’s so sensitive that he even lovingly calls oveweight people fatties and blimpos regularly, and calls gainfully employed people losers, but can’t you understand that he is just trying to show them the light so they can be more like him? They can be greasy overgrown hippies working temp jobs and looking down on other people too! Why, he’s even so cool that he can drive better than everyone except Mario Andretti - he drives an astonishing 20,000km a year! Can you believe such a thing!
Yeah - I read this guys threads for amusement. I have to admit, he cracks me the hell up. Such a wonderful combination of liar, poseur, and internet tough guy. Knowing him in real life must be quite a trial though.
I look at that thread and he is one of the few people in it acting honourably. A disgraceful pile on and most of the participants in it should be ashamed of themselves.
Well, I might not mind working in a bookstore myself, but B&N? Have you spent much time in one? It isn’t exactly a place where you sit around reading and tending to the bookstore cats. You spend your time returning books and magazines that people leave around, cleaning up empty coffee cups, and helping retarded customers find the section they are looking for. “Where are your History books?” :rolleyes:
I don’t buy books at B&N. Why would any sane person do that when Amazon has them for like half the price? I actually go there to sit and read expensive magazines related to my field, CGI, which all seem to come from England and are priced at like $20 a copy because they are imports. And to buy my girlfriend overpriced coffee, which she seems to have an unfortunate addiction to.
Yes, I am a wanker. Whatever suits your fancy.
It just seems sad to me. I always figured that people that work at B&N were doing it in the meantime, working their way through school, young folks deciding what they want out of life. I was surprised when she unloaded that on me. Fifteen years?!? Seriously, shoot me.
More a free spirit that hasn’t held a straight job in twenty years, and at age 50, for no more than five years of my adult life. I mainly do graphic design and CGI as a freelancer. The project I am just wrapping up is for Ron Artest (actually his agent hired us) for is charity benefit at the Playboy Mansion. Graphics for a Powerpoint presentation that will be used to solicit donors up to the $500,000 level.
Crossbow.
Well, a small independent chain is a world away from B&N.
Well, if you call not working a straight job since 1994 “unemployment” perhaps you are correct! And I did say that I wouldn’t mind working there “permanently” but in my book that means for a year or two on a part time basis. As a freelancer, I go through times of feast and famine, and a steady supplemental paycheck isn’t a bad idea for me. The fact is, after the temporary period, it was pretty obvious both to me and Fresh&Easy that we weren’t a good match. Screw shooting myself, if I had to work in that place for more than a few more weeks, I would have been shooting other people. Or at least the PA system playing the godawful “contemporary” mix from Muzak. At least B&N has better and more varied music. I’ll give them that. If I hear “Am I Standing Still” one more time…