[GCFL-discuss] You Know You're From or In Pennsylvania If...

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

Thank you most kindly, gentle sir.  I know more today than I did yesterday.  It must be a good day.
And for the record, I WAS asking for your comments.  I read every one you write.  Sometimes I groan and ignore them, sometimes I smile, knowing I agree, but not letting you know it, and sometimes I comment.  So there!
Jeanene
A child born with Hydranencephaly is one of Life's Little Miracles.
They live, laugh, and love -- all without a brain.
www.hydranencephaly.com 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List 
  To: Red 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 5:26 AM
  Subject: Re: [GCFL-discuss] You Know You're From or In Pennsylvania If...


  I can't believe this. Jeanene is ASKING my to comment on a subject? (Where are the emoticons so I can put a friendly smile here, accepting the joke in good humor?) 

  Siarlys

  OK, here goes:

  On Tue, 23 May 2006 16:11:18 -0700 "Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List" <gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net> writes:
    Well, then, I want a little explanation of the following words as you know them to be:

    hex sign -- a colorful design painted on barns and homes in Pennsylvania Deutsch (they aren't really Dutch, they're German) areas, believed to ward off spells, hexes, evil eyes, and other such hazards. Also sold to tourists to take home to other states as interesting decorations.

    "state store" -- in some states, sale of alcohol, or at least of hard liquor, is limited to state-owned, or a limited number of state-licensed stores, called "state stores." Corner grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. don't carry it, althought they may in some states be allowed to carry beer, and separate wine stores may or may not be allowed.

    "sticky buns" -- a yeast roll with a sticky caramel syrup poured over and hardened, often baked with pecans or walnuts, sometimes with raisins.

    Scrapple -- I don't recall the exact ingredients, but it is a gelatinous food made from the hooves and some internal organs of slaughtered animals. Considered a delicacy in times when meat was scarce and every bit had to be used.

    commonwealth -- the colonies of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were commonwealths, meaning to a limited extent that the government derived from the common agreement of whatever minority of the population were considered full citizens (generally requiring ownership of a certain value of property). Pennsylvania was originally a proprietorship: the personal jurisdiction of the Penn family, and became a commonwealth when the Penns were displaced. New York was a royal dominion, New Jersey was granted to a couple of nobility as their personal estate, Maryland was initially the proprietorship of Lord Baltimore, but that didn't last either. Virginia and South Carolina were crown colonies, ruled more or less directly by the king. But being so far away, they did have their own representative assemblies. And then, the people who lived in these places got their own ideas about how to govern what, or some of them did. About a third of the colonial population supported the revolution, another third opposed, and the remaining third watched which way the wind was blowing, while profitting from both sides at every opportunity.

    townships
    bouroughs

    The meaning of both terms varies, and often overlaps. "County" was, in Europe, the domain of a count, less than an earl, who was less than a duke, who was less than a king. What we call county is in England called a shire, which is the domain in which a shire-reeve (sheriff) is responsible for law and order. Townships in New York are semi-unincorporated areas, smaller than a county, larger than a city, which in Wisconsin would be called a town. Except, in New York City, which is made up of literally five counties, each county government is called a burough. Burough can also mean an unincorporated rural area, or be used in the sense that village is in other states: an incorporated municipality smaller than a city. I think burough may be used in place of county in some states, but I'm not sure. (I don't know everything).

    I have always assumed that township, commonwealth and borough are the same thing as county, but now that doesn't seem quite right...

    Jeanene
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://gcfl.net/pipermail/gcfl-discuss/attachments/20060525/01086972/attachment.htm