Ralph Walter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On the other hand, I was not thrilled recently to hear corrugated fasteners
> referred to as "Jew nails," with the clear implication that these devices
> were intended for use in a bad job.  Anybody else ever heard that one? I
> won't rat you out to the DAL.

around here  (the midwest),  any time the word "jew" is used like that, it's not
so much that the connotation is that it's a bad quality job, but actually sort of the
reverse....
something of high quality, but which the speaker is supposed to provide or do for little
or nothing....  it's more about money
and the perception that "Jews" control everything, hold all the power, own the media...

I think it's sort of an expression of powerlessness or jealousy or something....
or a left-handed compliment
like, someone will say, "he jewed me down on the price, but I took the job anyway
because I need the work"....
or an alternative usage I heard ,  advice offered when another person was in some
serious legal trouble,   "it'll cost you, but you better get you a jew for this one...."
implying that the person would undoubtedly pay dearly for the representation,
but was going to need only the best in the courtroom...

but those terms are pretty much recognized as being inappropriate in business or
social situations, and the persons whom I've heard using them weren't exactly
the highest-class or smartest folks out there ...

I was close to 30 when my husband, who is a black/white/creek mixed-race person
from northeastern alabama , informed me that he found my use of the term
"jerry-rigged" to be offensive
I was clueless, so he educated me that it was just a polite euphemism for the term that
the (mostly white) employers of his youth used to refer to a bad job,  "nigger-rigged"...

so I've been using the term "cobbled together" ever since, but can't really see the
logical connection between low-quality or makeshift work and the word "cobbled"...
it's probably just a matter of time before someone informs me that most of the
worst quality shoemakers of some long-gone era in some other part of the country
were of X nationality, and that the term is offensive to that nationality
and shouldn't be used...

I guess I should probably just say that "the job wasn't well-thought-out, used materials
that were low-quality and/or inappropriately applied, and the work was hastily
thrown together and can't be expected to last"....
but it's soooo much easier to just say "cobbled-together"   ;)

still, I sure don't want to do or say anything that could be hurtful or offensive to
someone
else -- and it never hurts to practice being more precise in our speech and writing I
guess....


deb  "a very lazy person, being as I'm human "






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