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Slice of life.
Mar. 30th, 2011 04:10 pmSo... when Kat and I wrote Salt and Silver
, we used a lot of NY slang, because our narrator is from Long Island and lives in Brooklyn. Our copyeditor (as Kat and I have talked about before), did not "get" a lot of the slang, and queried some of it -- including a statement our narrator makes several times:
"I cannot even."
Now, this is something that I say, my (NY) friends say it, and, you know, Valley girls in California say it! We stetted the copyeditor's change and the instances are still in the book (as I am sure you all know, being devotees and owning multiple copies, right?).
Today, at the mall on Staten Island, my sister and I lugged our giant shopping bags into the nail salon and plopped ourselves down for pedicures. (Here's mine, a delightfully shiny black from OPI.) Sitting next to me, getting a neon orange pedicure, was a high school-aged girl, clearly cutting class to hang out at the mall with her best friend. (No judging here; I used to cut out of school and go to the mall, too. And hang out at the bookstore. Oh yeah.)
Her best friend was just lounging around, not having anything done, drinking a delicious-looking coffee/ice cream concoction. And talking. I do not think she stopped to take a breath for the entire hour they were in the salon. She actually was reading an IM conversation out loud, off her phone -- she'd been chatting last night with her ex-boyfriend. It sounded like this:
IT WAS HILARIOUS. Well, it was hilarious for the first half an hour or so, and then I wanted to smother her with a hot towel.
Still, the whole time I thought about Salt and Silver's copyeditor and how zie queried every instance of "I cannot even" as not being a complete sentence.
, we used a lot of NY slang, because our narrator is from Long Island and lives in Brooklyn. Our copyeditor (as Kat and I have talked about before), did not "get" a lot of the slang, and queried some of it -- including a statement our narrator makes several times:"I cannot even."
Now, this is something that I say, my (NY) friends say it, and, you know, Valley girls in California say it! We stetted the copyeditor's change and the instances are still in the book (as I am sure you all know, being devotees and owning multiple copies, right?).
Today, at the mall on Staten Island, my sister and I lugged our giant shopping bags into the nail salon and plopped ourselves down for pedicures. (Here's mine, a delightfully shiny black from OPI.) Sitting next to me, getting a neon orange pedicure, was a high school-aged girl, clearly cutting class to hang out at the mall with her best friend. (No judging here; I used to cut out of school and go to the mall, too. And hang out at the bookstore. Oh yeah.)
Her best friend was just lounging around, not having anything done, drinking a delicious-looking coffee/ice cream concoction. And talking. I do not think she stopped to take a breath for the entire hour they were in the salon. She actually was reading an IM conversation out loud, off her phone -- she'd been chatting last night with her ex-boyfriend. It sounded like this:
My ex just won't leave me alone! Can you even believe it? And I was all, dude, I am going to Italy soon, you can't be weighing me down, and he was all, oh my god, but I still want to be friends, and I was all, oh my god, I can't be your friend, and he was all, oh my god, and he was, like, totally whining like you wouldn't believe, and he can't, like, ever, like, figure out when a conversation is, like, totally over -- do you, like, know what i mean?
Because, like, oh my god? I cannot, like, even.
IT WAS HILARIOUS. Well, it was hilarious for the first half an hour or so, and then I wanted to smother her with a hot towel.
Still, the whole time I thought about Salt and Silver
's copyeditor and how zie queried every instance of "I cannot even" as not being a complete sentence.