Oh, this young people today doing young people things! It’s awful, right? Amiright?
(Rental foot scooters is a thing in cities these days. It’s environmentally friendly and eases traffic but it’s so… well, we didn’t have it in our day so it’s just … weird. Damn millenials!)
No, it’s NOT that young people are doing this. It’s that people who have NO IDEA how to run these . . . as with snowmobiles and jet-skiis . . . causing accidents. Here in FL, Gov. deSantis ok’d their use on Tampa sidewalks; a few days later, a 33-year-old (hardly a ‘young person’) was killed. It’s been happening in many cities – LA and San Diego come to mind. Google ‘electric scooters’ and ‘dangerous’ and you’ll see the evidence.
Also, foot scooters are different from electric scooters, which is what I believe this pictures. Altho the one in front IS moving his foot . . .
“No, it’s NOT that young people are doing this.”
Indeed, you have to have a credit card to unlock the e-scooters, so almost everybody on one of these things was born in the last millenium.
It’s straight up “they’re coming to run me over!” panic.
To me, they all look like foot-powered scooters.
There are no visible motors or hand controls on those scooters. Of course, it could be that Stahler just can’t draw.
I get the feeling his point is that “The Scream” is an overreaction to something, not that it’s justified. Maybe?
OTOH, these don’t look like ‘young people’ . . . I guess I’d have to know where Stahler lives to see if this in direct reference to e-scooters; I know that when Andy Marlette writes his editorial comics, he often refers to issues in Florida, from which I assumed he lives in that state.
Perhaps because I had JUST read about the Tampa death and the dangers of e-scooters, I automatically assumed it was about them. I had an ‘autopet’ (scooter) in Holland before I was six years old; I cannot imagine that over 64 years later, they’d be considered a scream-worthy issue.
While Stahler could be using Munch’s “Scream” to rail against the evils of a younger generation that is about to (literally) overrun all right-thinking folk, it is equally possible that the “Scream” was intended to parody the complainers within that “right”-thinking folk. Which interpretation is more likely depends on whether one is a member of the right-thinking folk.
P.S. @ Andrea -,While I prefer to ignore the yahoos who comment over at GoComics (especially when I am one of them), in this case it would appear that each scooter has a battery pack attached to the steering column, so the yahoos are probably correct.
You callin’ me a YAHOO??? ‘-)
@Kilby, I actually read the cartoon both ways. Initially I read it as the cartoonist’s horror at something trivial: people using scooters. So I sent it in to Bill.
Reading it again here, I saw it as mocking the exaggerated horror at nothing, which is actually funny to me.
Several months ago the German traffic ministry unexpectedly announced plans to permit e-scooters on roads and sidewalks. There was never any indication from where the surprise idea came, but it’s pretty clear that manufacturers lobbied for the change. Luckily, there was a fairly swift backlash against permitting the things on sidewalks. The final compromise (which went into effect just a couple weeks ago) gave permission for e-scooters only on bicycle paths or streets, and set a maximum speed of 20 km/h (12.5 mph). They were intelligent enough to include a minimum age (14) and require insurance, but unfortunately the idiots did not insist on helmets.
@ Andréa – Read it again: Not just you, but me too.
I agree that the box suggests e-scooters. But the leg positions of the first and last suggest unpowered.
“Reading it again here, I saw it as mocking the exaggerated horror at nothing, which is actually funny to me.”
Tell that to those who’ve been injured, died, or even just been annoyed by almost being run over by these things.
Maybe you have to push off to get ’em started? OR if you push like that, the battery lasts longer?? Perhaps they had regular scooters as children and are so used to doing it that way, they forgot they didn’t have to.
@ Andréa – I know that for e-bikes, the motor is intended to assist (and not replace) the pedals. Scooter manufacturers would be crazy not to permit similar footwork.
“Indeed, you have to have a credit card to unlock the e-scooters, so almost everybody on one of these things was born in the last millenium.”
I never heard a crusty guy complaining about “young people” meaning children. Every “young person” I know has several credit cards not to mention VenMo.
Andrea’s probably right about the traffic accidents especially if this is a florida cartoonist. I hadn’t heard of the issues and it’s not very foremost in any ones minds on this coast.
Mocking the older generation as screaming about something that doesn’t matter seems a bit too subtle to me. But my interpretation of “damn millenials, amiright” is a bit too irrationally grouchy for any cartoonist to actually expect empathy. But then again I’ve seen a lot of stupid “trendy coastal” jokes so this isn’t *that* much of an exaggeration.
carlfink’s synchronicity so you don’t have to click away:
” I hadn’t heard of the issues and it’s not very foremost in anyone’s minds on this coast.” (i added the apostrophe for you)
Which coast?
I understand the oldest millenials are now about 37, having been born in 1982 or so and leaving school at 18 in 2000, although the last birth dates for millenials are the early 2000s.
I *swear* I remember being taught in the first grade that we use apostrophe s for possessives and that to refer to something belonging to “it” would be therefore “it’s” and I remember being *taught* that specifically. So come 10th grade, I remember my mother discovering I didn’t know that it was “its” and how of course it’s “its” because “it’s” is the contraction and how ignorant I was for not knowing. Which made me mad. The argument that the possessive can’t be an “it apostrophe s” was already taken made no sense. If “Fred apostrophe s” can be shared between the possessive and the contraction then why can’t “it apostrophe s”. And it’s perfectly logical that if “apostrophe s” is the possessive it would apply to “it” as well as to “Fred”. And if no-one *taught* me it was it was “its” how was I to know. (Okay, I’ve read books with “its” so wouldn’t I have noticed? Well, no… I read in a fluid state and I dnot pay atnetoin to how teh wrods are preicsely speleld out.
And frustratingly the correct rule of its seemed like an utterly artificial exception to a logical rule. But I accepted that English had its illogical and isolated exceptions and I accepted “its” as one weird exception to the possessive apostrophe s rule. Until grad school where one day I realized that it was a *pronoun* like “him” or “her” or “them” or “us” or “me”and has it’s own possessive such as “his” rather than “him’s” and “her” rather than … er… ‘her’s” and so on.
But then I realized that that “one” is also a pronoun. So I’ve been typing the possessive of “one” and “anyone” as “ones” and “anyones” ever since. Why? Pure ornery stubbornness. Sometimes after 20 years you snap and suddenly you want to be on the other side of cussedness.
“”Which coast?”
The other one.
The one where sailors don’t have the boats protected by the lee of the continent.
I still DU . . . I live on the Gulf Coast; there are more than just two . . .
woozy, I did the RTFM step and *still* couldn’t find out why (or if) the possessive of “one” had an apostrophe. Fortunately, I know a linguist who updated his page to explain that it did and why. Well, sort-of why. Only personal pronouns do not get apostrophes for possessives. And somehow “it” is considered personal, but “one” isn’t.
Unfortunately, I’ve since lost the link to that explanation.
“And somehow “it” is considered personal, but “one” isn’t.”
“one” is not specific and “it” is, I suppose. But why specificity should matter…. It’s at this point I get ornery and cussed. I’m going to do what I darned well want unless you can out beat me in my chest thumping reasoning. It sounds like your linguist friend can and when I run against her I’ll defer to “one’s”. For everyone else I’ll thump my chest and challenge them to come up with a more convincing reason (and appeal to authority isn’t enough; the authority must have a reason.)
Yeah, I know. The world doesn’t work that way and I’m obnoxious and arrogant but… I’m tired and my back hurts from gardening and I’m *not* going to accept defeat on the mere technicality that I’m wrong!
That’s one of the benefits of geezerhood. You can be opinionated and gumption matters more than legitimacy. (Mansplaining’s got nothing on geezersplaining!)
Woozy – “has it’s own possessive such as “his” rather than “him’s” and”
Presumably it would be apostrophe before the ‘s in both cases, so hi’s and her’s.
Probably ittud be best to get rid of all apostrophes in time; we doant seem to need them when speaking or listening.
“Only personal pronouns do not get apostrophes for possessives. And somehow “it” is considered personal, but “one” isn’t.”
possibly personal pronouns have declensions and it doesn’t make sense tho have “he’s” and “she’s” possessives vs. “him’s” and “her’s”. Possessive is itself a case. Anyone and one, I case are “proper” nouns and have no declensions. (Of course, by weird circumstance neither does “it” but that’s something else.)
Andréa, some Chicagoans consider themselves to be living on a “coast” as well.
When I lived in WI, I lived on the ‘coast’ of Lake Michigan . . . literally . . . .
Fairly impressive lake, when multiple states can consider themselves to be on its coasts.
I have to admit I didn’t appreciate the size until I saw it in person: in my brain, a lake is something you can walk around.
A dangerous lake – in fact, all the Great Lakes are. Weather conditions can change within a few minutes. Also greatly (ha!) affect the weather of cities surrounding them; our weather was always different than that of even a few miles inland, in all seasons. It isn’t called ‘lake effect snow’ for nothing!
@ Bill – “a lake is something you can walk around“…
There was an old VW ad that quipped: “Even if a Beetle can definitely float, it cannot float indefinitely. So drive around the big puddles, especially if they are big enough to have a name.”
I learned about the Lake effect last year.
Another thing that was more impressive in person than in theory.
You would like Geneva Lake, WI . . . lots of mansions (it was Chicago’s ‘summer vacation land’) . . . but by law, paths had to be maintained so that people could walk around the entire lake, including thru the yards of said mansions (Wrigley mansion was the most famous). I never did the walk, altho we did the boat cruise and the mailboat cruise and, of course, shopped and ate in the town of Lake Geneva; also the International Ice Carving Contest every February. One year, everything melted, including the ice on the [very deep – deepest in WI, I believe] lake; several cars and trucks parked thereon fell in. The next year, it was so cold, carvers couldn’t work. Good memories . . .
Which side of which lake?
“some Chicagoans consider themselves to be living on a ‘coast’ as well.”
…and those few Chicagoans are wrong. A lake has a shore, not a coast. Even if the lake is too big to see across. (Actually, I lived in Chicago for a decade and I don’t think I ever heard anyone call the lakeshore a “coast.”)
You’re very right . . . I lived on the SHORE of Lake Michigan for 60 years and never thought to call it a coast. I stand/sit corrected (and now live on the Gulf COAST).
Today’s Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE has a story relevant here: “Over the course of three days, 49 Spin [name of the company] scooters were smashed into the ground, mangling their handlebars, frames or sensors, the company told [St. Paul] police. A few of the scooters’ brake lines were cut.”
The story goes on to mention an incident in Portland OR last week where more than fifty scooters were thrown into the river, and another St. Paul incident a couple of weeks ago where someone was taking scotters from the front of a coffee shop behind the building and throwing them in the dumpsters. A copy of a Los Angeles TIMES article on the dangers of scooters had been taped to the bin, and the man when challenged pointed to that and explained “This is where they go. They’re bad.” Also noted were anonymous blog posts on a local “left wing activist blog” calling for “creative destruction” of scooters in the Twin Cities.
And yet, the term “third coast” often (usually?) refers to the area around the Great Lakes.
Never heard o’ that . . . might it not refer instead to the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico?
Talk about a drive on Memory Lane; First Hubby and I would take Sheridan Road from WI to IL, thru Wilmette, Winnetka, Lake Forest, Fort Sheridan . . . then jump on LSD and spend the day at Marshall Field’s, with an evening in Old Town, back in the ‘hippie days’. If you’ve never driven LSD, the song drives along just at about the same tempo as the drive itself. Hard to explain . . . I guess you’d’ve had to’ve been there . . .
I don’t know if they still do this: Some years ago, visiting family in Ohio, I noticed at least one of the Cleveland television stations was billing itself as from “The North Coast”.
@ Andréa – I knew someone in college who used to “jump on LSD” occasionally, but when he did, he was hardly in condition to drive anywhere.
The Lake Shore Drive Song — “slipping and sliding on LSD”
I think Arthur and others have answered the point made by Andréa and CaroZ, that even on a Great Lake, a lake shore is not really a coast, by pointing out the intention was hardly to talk about the literal physical geography, but to apply it to an area as a whole, just as “East Coast” and “West Coast” in their wider applications can refer to collections of several states. (Even if in their narrower applications they may seem to refer to a single city each.)
And as the discussion following CIDU Bill’s introduction of the term into this thread indicates, the impulse to use “Third Coast” for the lower Midwest broadly, or Chicago narrowly, is an attempt to horn in on the cultural significance, in many fields or contexts, of saying there is an East Coast school and a West Coast school (or style or outlook…).
Even though these dichotomies were themselves full of holes, there was a time when Cool Jazz and Hot Jazz had coastal “affiliations”, and Beat was (originally) seen as an East Coast phenomenon while Hippies came along as (briefly) a West Coast phenomenon. When the British Murder Mystery made its way across the pond, we got the tough-guy noir L.A. authors like Hammett, Chandler, and Cain, along with the middle-of-the-road approach of Ellery Queen and Rex Stout, both set in New York. (As also was “The Thin Man”, which spoils my thesis a bit by being written by Hammett.)
So, I’ve probably not hidden my attitude on this: calling something midwestern or Chicago-based “Third Coast” as an attempt to sound like the polar East and West usually feels like a sad case of “second cityism” — especially as it can’t even claim second anymore. And honestly, doesn’t the Gulf Coast have some claim, both geographically and culturally? New Orleans? Austin (no, I know it’s not a coastal city, but it’s in a coastal state)?
That said, I will still say I’m an enthusiast for Third Coast Percussion. The Third Coast International Audio Festival is actually quite good, even though I can’t stand their promotional campaigns.
I want to establish a lakeside dinner theatre, just so I can call it The Diner Shore Show.
/// Unfortunately, those of us old enough to remember her and her TV variety show are probably too old to go out to eat much these days. (You haven’t got any groat clusters I could nibble on, do you?)
Shrug, just remember that if you open the place in New York City, nobody will get the joke because the pronunciation is identical.
Or they will get all serious because they think you said something about the Shoah.
Riding on non-motorized scooters of this type is very common among the Pennsylvania Dutch. One can be driving down the main road – US 30 – and along the side of the road will be a PA Dutch man,woman and/or child riding on scooter of this type. (Search for “Amish on scooter” if you don’t believe me. (Some in the photos are Mennonites, which is why I said PA Dutch and not Amish.)
These are motorized, so I doubt the Amish would be using them.
A quote from the book, ‘Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom’, which I began tonight: “I started by driving straight up the gut of the country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, America’s two unheralded coasts.”
Andréa – Didn’t realize these were motorized. Thank you.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Oh, this young people today doing young people things! It’s awful, right? Amiright?
(Rental foot scooters is a thing in cities these days. It’s environmentally friendly and eases traffic but it’s so… well, we didn’t have it in our day so it’s just … weird. Damn millenials!)
No, it’s NOT that young people are doing this. It’s that people who have NO IDEA how to run these . . . as with snowmobiles and jet-skiis . . . causing accidents. Here in FL, Gov. deSantis ok’d their use on Tampa sidewalks; a few days later, a 33-year-old (hardly a ‘young person’) was killed. It’s been happening in many cities – LA and San Diego come to mind. Google ‘electric scooters’ and ‘dangerous’ and you’ll see the evidence.
I sent this comic to my political list, and included the following links:
REF: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/02/04/how-dangerous-are-electric-scooters-infographic/#60332057469c
REF: http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/gov-desantis-signs-bill-lifting-sidewalk-restrictions-on-electric-scooters
. . . and then . . .
http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/tampa-man-killed-by-truck-while-riding-electric-scooter
Also, foot scooters are different from electric scooters, which is what I believe this pictures. Altho the one in front IS moving his foot . . .
“No, it’s NOT that young people are doing this.”
Indeed, you have to have a credit card to unlock the e-scooters, so almost everybody on one of these things was born in the last millenium.
It’s straight up “they’re coming to run me over!” panic.
To me, they all look like foot-powered scooters.
There are no visible motors or hand controls on those scooters. Of course, it could be that Stahler just can’t draw.
I get the feeling his point is that “The Scream” is an overreaction to something, not that it’s justified. Maybe?
OTOH, these don’t look like ‘young people’ . . . I guess I’d have to know where Stahler lives to see if this in direct reference to e-scooters; I know that when Andy Marlette writes his editorial comics, he often refers to issues in Florida, from which I assumed he lives in that state.
Perhaps because I had JUST read about the Tampa death and the dangers of e-scooters, I automatically assumed it was about them. I had an ‘autopet’ (scooter) in Holland before I was six years old; I cannot imagine that over 64 years later, they’d be considered a scream-worthy issue.
If you read the comments here – https://www.gocomics.com/jeffstahler/2019/07/02 – they all assume it’s about e-scooters.
While Stahler could be using Munch’s “Scream” to rail against the evils of a younger generation that is about to (literally) overrun all right-thinking folk, it is equally possible that the “Scream” was intended to parody the complainers within that “right”-thinking folk. Which interpretation is more likely depends on whether one is a member of the right-thinking folk.
P.S. @ Andrea -,While I prefer to ignore the yahoos who comment over at GoComics (especially when I am one of them), in this case it would appear that each scooter has a battery pack attached to the steering column, so the yahoos are probably correct.
You callin’ me a YAHOO??? ‘-)
@Kilby, I actually read the cartoon both ways. Initially I read it as the cartoonist’s horror at something trivial: people using scooters. So I sent it in to Bill.
Reading it again here, I saw it as mocking the exaggerated horror at nothing, which is actually funny to me.
Several months ago the German traffic ministry unexpectedly announced plans to permit e-scooters on roads and sidewalks. There was never any indication from where the surprise idea came, but it’s pretty clear that manufacturers lobbied for the change. Luckily, there was a fairly swift backlash against permitting the things on sidewalks. The final compromise (which went into effect just a couple weeks ago) gave permission for e-scooters only on bicycle paths or streets, and set a maximum speed of 20 km/h (12.5 mph). They were intelligent enough to include a minimum age (14) and require insurance, but unfortunately the idiots did not insist on helmets.
@ Andréa – Read it again: Not just you, but me too.
I agree that the box suggests e-scooters. But the leg positions of the first and last suggest unpowered.
“Reading it again here, I saw it as mocking the exaggerated horror at nothing, which is actually funny to me.”
Tell that to those who’ve been injured, died, or even just been annoyed by almost being run over by these things.
Maybe you have to push off to get ’em started? OR if you push like that, the battery lasts longer?? Perhaps they had regular scooters as children and are so used to doing it that way, they forgot they didn’t have to.
@ Andréa – I know that for e-bikes, the motor is intended to assist (and not replace) the pedals. Scooter manufacturers would be crazy not to permit similar footwork.
“Indeed, you have to have a credit card to unlock the e-scooters, so almost everybody on one of these things was born in the last millenium.”
I never heard a crusty guy complaining about “young people” meaning children. Every “young person” I know has several credit cards not to mention VenMo.
Andrea’s probably right about the traffic accidents especially if this is a florida cartoonist. I hadn’t heard of the issues and it’s not very foremost in any ones minds on this coast.
Mocking the older generation as screaming about something that doesn’t matter seems a bit too subtle to me. But my interpretation of “damn millenials, amiright” is a bit too irrationally grouchy for any cartoonist to actually expect empathy. But then again I’ve seen a lot of stupid “trendy coastal” jokes so this isn’t *that* much of an exaggeration.
Synchonicity
carlfink’s synchronicity so you don’t have to click away:
” I hadn’t heard of the issues and it’s not very foremost in anyone’s minds on this coast.” (i added the apostrophe for you)
Which coast?
I understand the oldest millenials are now about 37, having been born in 1982 or so and leaving school at 18 in 2000, although the last birth dates for millenials are the early 2000s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials#Terminology
“(i added the apostrophe for you)”
I *swear* I remember being taught in the first grade that we use apostrophe s for possessives and that to refer to something belonging to “it” would be therefore “it’s” and I remember being *taught* that specifically. So come 10th grade, I remember my mother discovering I didn’t know that it was “its” and how of course it’s “its” because “it’s” is the contraction and how ignorant I was for not knowing. Which made me mad. The argument that the possessive can’t be an “it apostrophe s” was already taken made no sense. If “Fred apostrophe s” can be shared between the possessive and the contraction then why can’t “it apostrophe s”. And it’s perfectly logical that if “apostrophe s” is the possessive it would apply to “it” as well as to “Fred”. And if no-one *taught* me it was it was “its” how was I to know. (Okay, I’ve read books with “its” so wouldn’t I have noticed? Well, no… I read in a fluid state and I dnot pay atnetoin to how teh wrods are preicsely speleld out.
And frustratingly the correct rule of its seemed like an utterly artificial exception to a logical rule. But I accepted that English had its illogical and isolated exceptions and I accepted “its” as one weird exception to the possessive apostrophe s rule. Until grad school where one day I realized that it was a *pronoun* like “him” or “her” or “them” or “us” or “me”and has it’s own possessive such as “his” rather than “him’s” and “her” rather than … er… ‘her’s” and so on.
But then I realized that that “one” is also a pronoun. So I’ve been typing the possessive of “one” and “anyone” as “ones” and “anyones” ever since. Why? Pure ornery stubbornness. Sometimes after 20 years you snap and suddenly you want to be on the other side of cussedness.
“”Which coast?”
The other one.
The one where sailors don’t have the boats protected by the lee of the continent.
I still DU . . . I live on the Gulf Coast; there are more than just two . . .
woozy, I did the RTFM step and *still* couldn’t find out why (or if) the possessive of “one” had an apostrophe. Fortunately, I know a linguist who updated his page to explain that it did and why. Well, sort-of why. Only personal pronouns do not get apostrophes for possessives. And somehow “it” is considered personal, but “one” isn’t.
Unfortunately, I’ve since lost the link to that explanation.
“And somehow “it” is considered personal, but “one” isn’t.”
“one” is not specific and “it” is, I suppose. But why specificity should matter…. It’s at this point I get ornery and cussed. I’m going to do what I darned well want unless you can out beat me in my chest thumping reasoning. It sounds like your linguist friend can and when I run against her I’ll defer to “one’s”. For everyone else I’ll thump my chest and challenge them to come up with a more convincing reason (and appeal to authority isn’t enough; the authority must have a reason.)
Yeah, I know. The world doesn’t work that way and I’m obnoxious and arrogant but… I’m tired and my back hurts from gardening and I’m *not* going to accept defeat on the mere technicality that I’m wrong!
That’s one of the benefits of geezerhood. You can be opinionated and gumption matters more than legitimacy. (Mansplaining’s got nothing on geezersplaining!)
Woozy – “has it’s own possessive such as “his” rather than “him’s” and”
Presumably it would be apostrophe before the ‘s in both cases, so hi’s and her’s.
Probably ittud be best to get rid of all apostrophes in time; we doant seem to need them when speaking or listening.
“Only personal pronouns do not get apostrophes for possessives. And somehow “it” is considered personal, but “one” isn’t.”
possibly personal pronouns have declensions and it doesn’t make sense tho have “he’s” and “she’s” possessives vs. “him’s” and “her’s”. Possessive is itself a case. Anyone and one, I case are “proper” nouns and have no declensions. (Of course, by weird circumstance neither does “it” but that’s something else.)
Andréa, some Chicagoans consider themselves to be living on a “coast” as well.
When I lived in WI, I lived on the ‘coast’ of Lake Michigan . . . literally . . . .
Fairly impressive lake, when multiple states can consider themselves to be on its coasts.
I have to admit I didn’t appreciate the size until I saw it in person: in my brain, a lake is something you can walk around.
A dangerous lake – in fact, all the Great Lakes are. Weather conditions can change within a few minutes. Also greatly (ha!) affect the weather of cities surrounding them; our weather was always different than that of even a few miles inland, in all seasons. It isn’t called ‘lake effect snow’ for nothing!
@ Bill – “a lake is something you can walk around“…
There was an old VW ad that quipped: “Even if a Beetle can definitely float, it cannot float indefinitely. So drive around the big puddles, especially if they are big enough to have a name.”
I learned about the Lake effect last year.
Another thing that was more impressive in person than in theory.
You would like Geneva Lake, WI . . . lots of mansions (it was Chicago’s ‘summer vacation land’) . . . but by law, paths had to be maintained so that people could walk around the entire lake, including thru the yards of said mansions (Wrigley mansion was the most famous). I never did the walk, altho we did the boat cruise and the mailboat cruise and, of course, shopped and ate in the town of Lake Geneva; also the International Ice Carving Contest every February. One year, everything melted, including the ice on the [very deep – deepest in WI, I believe] lake; several cars and trucks parked thereon fell in. The next year, it was so cold, carvers couldn’t work. Good memories . . .
Which side of which lake?
“some Chicagoans consider themselves to be living on a ‘coast’ as well.”
…and those few Chicagoans are wrong. A lake has a shore, not a coast. Even if the lake is too big to see across. (Actually, I lived in Chicago for a decade and I don’t think I ever heard anyone call the lakeshore a “coast.”)
You’re very right . . . I lived on the SHORE of Lake Michigan for 60 years and never thought to call it a coast. I stand/sit corrected (and now live on the Gulf COAST).
Today’s Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE has a story relevant here: “Over the course of three days, 49 Spin [name of the company] scooters were smashed into the ground, mangling their handlebars, frames or sensors, the company told [St. Paul] police. A few of the scooters’ brake lines were cut.”
The story goes on to mention an incident in Portland OR last week where more than fifty scooters were thrown into the river, and another St. Paul incident a couple of weeks ago where someone was taking scotters from the front of a coffee shop behind the building and throwing them in the dumpsters. A copy of a Los Angeles TIMES article on the dangers of scooters had been taped to the bin, and the man when challenged pointed to that and explained “This is where they go. They’re bad.” Also noted were anonymous blog posts on a local “left wing activist blog” calling for “creative destruction” of scooters in the Twin Cities.
And yet, the term “third coast” often (usually?) refers to the area around the Great Lakes.
Never heard o’ that . . . might it not refer instead to the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico?
Talk about a drive on Memory Lane; First Hubby and I would take Sheridan Road from WI to IL, thru Wilmette, Winnetka, Lake Forest, Fort Sheridan . . . then jump on LSD and spend the day at Marshall Field’s, with an evening in Old Town, back in the ‘hippie days’. If you’ve never driven LSD, the song drives along just at about the same tempo as the drive itself. Hard to explain . . . I guess you’d’ve had to’ve been there . . .
I don’t know if they still do this: Some years ago, visiting family in Ohio, I noticed at least one of the Cleveland television stations was billing itself as from “The North Coast”.
@ Andréa – I knew someone in college who used to “jump on LSD” occasionally, but when he did, he was hardly in condition to drive anywhere.
The Lake Shore Drive Song — “slipping and sliding on LSD”
If anyone is as interested as I was in the history of the song . . .
https://www.pbs.org/video/skip-haynes-his-song-lake-shore-drive-4jeclj/
“Tomorrow is another day”!
I think Arthur and others have answered the point made by Andréa and CaroZ, that even on a Great Lake, a lake shore is not really a coast, by pointing out the intention was hardly to talk about the literal physical geography, but to apply it to an area as a whole, just as “East Coast” and “West Coast” in their wider applications can refer to collections of several states. (Even if in their narrower applications they may seem to refer to a single city each.)
And as the discussion following CIDU Bill’s introduction of the term into this thread indicates, the impulse to use “Third Coast” for the lower Midwest broadly, or Chicago narrowly, is an attempt to horn in on the cultural significance, in many fields or contexts, of saying there is an East Coast school and a West Coast school (or style or outlook…).
Even though these dichotomies were themselves full of holes, there was a time when Cool Jazz and Hot Jazz had coastal “affiliations”, and Beat was (originally) seen as an East Coast phenomenon while Hippies came along as (briefly) a West Coast phenomenon. When the British Murder Mystery made its way across the pond, we got the tough-guy noir L.A. authors like Hammett, Chandler, and Cain, along with the middle-of-the-road approach of Ellery Queen and Rex Stout, both set in New York. (As also was “The Thin Man”, which spoils my thesis a bit by being written by Hammett.)
So, I’ve probably not hidden my attitude on this: calling something midwestern or Chicago-based “Third Coast” as an attempt to sound like the polar East and West usually feels like a sad case of “second cityism” — especially as it can’t even claim second anymore. And honestly, doesn’t the Gulf Coast have some claim, both geographically and culturally? New Orleans? Austin (no, I know it’s not a coastal city, but it’s in a coastal state)?
That said, I will still say I’m an enthusiast for Third Coast Percussion. The Third Coast International Audio Festival is actually quite good, even though I can’t stand their promotional campaigns.
I want to establish a lakeside dinner theatre, just so I can call it The Diner Shore Show.
/// Unfortunately, those of us old enough to remember her and her TV variety show are probably too old to go out to eat much these days. (You haven’t got any groat clusters I could nibble on, do you?)
Shrug, just remember that if you open the place in New York City, nobody will get the joke because the pronunciation is identical.
Or they will get all serious because they think you said something about the Shoah.
Riding on non-motorized scooters of this type is very common among the Pennsylvania Dutch. One can be driving down the main road – US 30 – and along the side of the road will be a PA Dutch man,woman and/or child riding on scooter of this type. (Search for “Amish on scooter” if you don’t believe me. (Some in the photos are Mennonites, which is why I said PA Dutch and not Amish.)
These are motorized, so I doubt the Amish would be using them.
A quote from the book, ‘Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom’, which I began tonight: “I started by driving straight up the gut of the country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, America’s two unheralded coasts.”
Andréa – Didn’t realize these were motorized. Thank you.
I don’t see a battery pack on these . . .
https://safr.kingfeatures.com/api/img.php?e=gif&s=c&file=Wml0cy8yMDE5LzA5L1ppdHMuMjAxOTA5MjFfMTUzNi5naWY=