* * * This message was from Amy Guskin to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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{at}MSGID: 
{at}REPLY:
> On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:36:09 -0400, Mac Breck wrote
(in article ):

> "Amy Guskin"  wrote in message
> news:0001HW.C1398DCF02AA2454F0407530{at}news.verizon.net...
>>>> On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:47:21 -0400, Jan wrote
>> (in article ):
>> 
>>> In article , Amy
> Guskin
>>> says...
>>>> 
>>>>>> On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:48:04 -0400, phil wrote
>>>> (in article ):
>>>> 
>>>>> On 17 Sep 2006 18:14:34 -0700, "Joseph DeMartino"
>>>>>  wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> phil wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> unless the last person to work on your kitchen
sink drain was an
> idiot
>>>>>>> who Africian American engineered ...
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Now *there's* a term that belongs on a civilized discussion
> group.  Any
>>>>>> other stupid ethnic stereotypes you'd like to get
off your chest,
> phil?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> And before you deny that you're a bigot, let me
explain something
> to
>>>>>> you. If you USE that phrase, you ARE a bigot.  Casually
> trafficking in
>>>>>> degrading stereotypes if one of the symptoms of
that particular
>>>>>> disease.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Joe
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> You don't _know_ me; you've never met me or spent any time in
>>>>> conversation and yet _you_ can parse my comment to
conclude that I
> am
>>>>> a bigot; well _I_ can just as easily parse your statement to
> conclude
>>>>> that you are a bloviating buffoon, but _I_ wont.
>>>>> It was just such ad hominem assaults  combined with my illness
> that
>>>>> caused me to pull back from this group some 6 months ago.I see
> _now_
>>>>> that was the right decision.
>>>>> you have _no_ idea of how badly that idiot butchered this house;
> don't
>>>>> know his name or race, don't really care>  <<
>>>> 
>>>> Phil, to be fair to Joe, _you're_ the one who said "African
> American
>>>> engineered."  Now, I have no idea what that means,
but I don't see
> how it
>>>> can
>>>> be taken as anything _but_ a racist comment.  And if you don't know
> his
>>>> race,
>>>> why would you call him that?
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> It took me a minute but I can only assume that "Africian American
> engineered"
>> 
>>> is
>>> a supposedly sanitized way of saying
"n****r-rigged".  Blech.  I
> need to go
>>> wash
>>> my hands now. <<
>> 
>> Uh...
>> 
>> Gosh.  It's no wonder I didn't know what he meant.  I have never heard
> that
>> term in my life.  After reading the initial post causing the furor, I
> went
>> and looked up the sanitized term on urbandictionary.com but couldn't
> find it.
>> This one, I found.
>> 
>> But again, I don't know how that can be taken as anything but racist.
> 
> Maybe you're just not old enough.  If you were, you might just instantly
> translate it in your head to someone doing a substandard job that looks
> awful and is prone to fail immediately, or in the near future, and you
> wouldn't even dwell on it as an ethnic slur. <<

I'm in my 40s, Mac, and I've lived in extremely cosmopolitan areas of the 
country.  I _never_ heard it used in either New York, or (certainly not!) 
Philadelphia.

I _have_ heard people say "jewed him down on the price" and think it's 
equally as fine as some of you seem to think of this inappropriate phrase.

Using something a lot, over a long period of time, does _not_ sanitize it.

My guess is that those of you who are all "Pshaw, it's nothing!" over this 
phrase are western-European descended white males.

>> Think
> "shoemaker" (cobbled together) or "Rube Goldberg"
or jury-rigged
> (although the latter implies solely out of necessity, i.e.
> MacGyver-ized, not out of being incompetent/stupid/shortsighted). <<

"Jury rigged" seems to convey the exact same thing, in the same amount of 
syllables, and using less letters.  I wouldn't use "Rube
Goldberg," because 
that makes me think of something with a lot of unlikely parts that generally 
works _well_, like the machines in Bugs Bunny cartoons and Wallace & Grommit.

Amy
        
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