As a long-time Texan, “pretentiousness” doesn’t bother me as much as fake, jus’ folks, down home posturing. Like Bush the Dumber, graduate of Yale & Harvard, pretending to be a rancher. (One who’s afraid of horses, alas.)
(In a related story, Raise Your Hand: Creating a Smarter Texas has been running TV spots, asking Texans to contact our State Reps about the latest numbnuts cuts in education. One of them is by Tommy Lee Jones, native Texan, actor, Harvard grad & polo player.)
Texas has an unusual “get smarter” program, which attacks the problem from another direction. Their plan is to execute all the people dumb enough to kill and get caught, which in theory will result in a smarter population.
My kids are hyphenated for personal reasons, not for other people’s benefit. Its not pretentious because it wasn’t done to impress or lord something over other people. It was deeply personal and the right thing for my little family. My kids (in their teens) like their names.
My kids know they are welcome to drop one name socially or legally as soon as they are adults. When/if they marry they can do what they want- take spouses name, whatever. Their dad or I won’t mind or be hurt or anything. They need to make whatever decisions work for them.
Not too many things because I try not to get worked up over other people’s idiosyncrasies, that way lies hysterics over someone asking you to take your shoes off. Probably the only one that makes me smirk is referring to one’s self as an EX-PAT.
Dude, you are not an ex-pat to Canada or Thailand you silly TS Eliot-ing wannabe. You are a freaking immigrant.
What makes me an immigrant → coming from developing nation to developed nations + a nice tan
What makes the average “ex-pat” an “ex-pat” —> sad desire to inject romanticism into the simple act of permanently moving some other place
Of course, now I totally expect a bunch of ex-pats to thunder into the thread to tell me off. 
I said the same thing earlier, as have several other intelligent dopers. Still there are plenty of moronic dopers who feel simply the act is pretentious, and like morons all over, they are finding strength in numbers.
I don’t think you’re very clear on the correct definitions of these two terms.
What pretense does the subtitle there represent?
Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that a lot of nonfiction books have subtitles. I just grabbed a random handful off a shelf, and six of the eight (big hand) have subtitles.
Oh no, identify as an ex-pat do you? I’m perfectly clear on the meaning of both terms. If you’re stuck in another country for a little while because of work (up to 5 years usually), you’re just a temporary resident. So far I’ve been a temporary resident of Japan, Brazil and England when my dad was assigned there to various projects. If you’re in another country for more than the amount of time it takes to get citizenship and have no plans to leave but you haven’t switched over yet…you’re just an immigrant without the right to vote in that country. If you’ve moved someplace, married a native and had kids in that country and haven’t changed your citizenship…you’re still an immigrant without the right to vote.
So far I’ve immigrated to Canada and then to the United States. And yes, I did in fact change my citizenship.
If your skin is dark, you are always always always an immigrant, unless the American Southwest is just filled up with ex-pats!
If you’re a foaming at the mouth liberal who posts on ThornTree and is leaving the United States for Canada…you’re an ex-pat who will argue to the death about the differences between being an immigrant and being an ex-pat on internet message boards dropping that trite “Lady, that word does not mean what you think it does” hawr hawr crap into a post. Mostly because you think you’re special for doing something a crapload of people do nearly ever day. Which is immigrate.
Still quite a few posters who think anything they don’t like or get = pretentious.
This. Neither is sharing your enthusiasm for something, although you should always be aware of social cues that tell you your audience is not interested in what you are saying.
Sometimes a beer really hits the spot for me, and there are a huge variety of beers out there.
Nope, sometimes it tastes good. Although I think this probably has more to do with freshness than whether pesticides or antibiotics have been used. Buying organic food from a supermarket may be a waste of time, as it may not be all that fresh.
Has never appealed to me, but enjoyment is not pretentious.
What sort of things would you define as “green crap”?
I agree with you, generally, but your tone is really off and you seem to be assuming that the only reason someone might disagree with you is that they are defensive. That’s a really dick move.
Generally, I agree. Poor people immigrate; rich people expatriate.
(This is why in right-wing British and American newspapers you’ll often see tirades about immigrants and articles on how to buy property in Spain or Costa Rica in the very same issue, with no apparent irony.)
pdts
I wouldn’t know. Books didn’t used to have them so much I think. But, by illustration, what would you think of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica: Predicting Motion from Cricket Balls to Mars or––Oh, I was going to say Das Kapital: Why the Status-Quo is Unsustainable and What the Future Brings but it did actually have a subtitle that is too boring to be remembered: Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Alright then, what about Ethicka Nikomacheia: 101 Reasons Why You Were Wrong Doing What You Did?
Heh. Well, I guess those would be diminished by expanding upon them. But those titles are pretty much direct statements of the content to begin with.
What is the pretension you see?
As for where the hyphens stop, I’d do this: husband and wife hyphenate their birth surnames. Children are assigned the un-hyphenated surname of the parent of the same gender. So if Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson Parker, they both become Parker-Watson (or Watson-Parker). They have two children, May & Ben, whose full names are May Watson & Ben Parker.
So the goal is for all Mary-Jane’s matrilineal female descendants will carry her father’s surname? :dubious: 
There’s no getting around the fact tht, in Anglophone societies, most surnames were "originallY’ passed down by males. But that doesn’t mean we have to perpetutate the custom, which I see as built on a sexist desire to subsume a woman’s identity into her husband’s.
Totally. Some people can tell you about having lunch with Bill Clinton and George Clooney at the top of the Eiffel Tower while in Paris as the guest of honor at a Fashion Week-G8 Summit Crossover while enroute to collect their latest Nobel Prize and it doesn’t come across like they’re bragging or trying to impress. Others can tell you about meeting the half-brother of the mayor of Shamrock, Texas for lunch at a truck stop buffet and it’s clear their point is to self aggrandize.
On the topic of multiple last names, I totally prefer the Spanish custom to the Anglo custom and would definitely use it if I had kids; if not hyphenated I’d at very least use the mother’s surname as a middle name. It’s also a nice convenience to future genealogists.
Interestingly (if only to me), many Mormon polygamist communities use both surnames, not usually hyphenated but as middle names. It serves several practical functions: if Tom Lewis has two 15 year old sons, one by his wife the former Mary Johnston and one by the former Annie Udall the kids are Joseph Johnston Lewis and Tony Udall Lewis, thus an instant reminder of who is who. Also, if Tony makes friends with Boris Walker Smith whose mother was born Leah Udall Walker it means he may want to think twice before asking about Boris’s sister Jenny Walker Smith, though his half sister Lisa Michaels Smith might be okay. I think the point is I think we need more polygamy and less inbreeding, but I’m not sure, wasn’t reading.
Ah yes, multiple surnames. I like 'em.
Or people who act like they’re an expert about EVERY SINGLE THING you ever talk about.
I’ve got a great ending story about this if anyone’s interested…
I am interested.
Then please enlighten us all with your knowledge of the difference. Provide cites.
Here are mine:
expatriate: living in a foreign land
immigrant: a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence
What’s your fucking problem with someone wanting to be called one instead of the other. They are fucking synonyms.