Boy Scouts vs. Philadelphia

[Hal_Crawford]

Merlyn:

I wouldn't be too sure. Sarah Palin is not from Minnesota but she sure sounds like it. You betcha! (wink)

[packsaddle]

The thread continues to evolve into an interesting and benign form.....

Well, I often used to hear Eugene Odum (a famous ecologist at UGa) say, "Don'cha know?". And he had a thick Southern accent. I think that one may be in use all over.

 

But I have always wondered about that 'uff-da' usage. What does it mean and in what context is it used? One thing I'd like to learn to do before I die is that most civilized sport of curling. But I need to understand the language first.

[Hal_Crawford]

Packsaddle:

Do I detect a fellow Dawg? I went to grad school in Athens. I did not know Professor Odum.

Hal

[packsaddle]

Not a Dawg but close enough for me to interact with quite a few colleagues there. Odum died some time ago. He and his brother Howard (U of Florida and also deceased) were both famous and both had the same accents and used the phrase, "Don'cha know?", to end all sorts of statements, even at professional meetings.

One of the highlights of my professional career was in Augusta, Ga for a symposium in 1979 or so when Howard playfully argued with Gene about some fine point and finally offerred to stuff him into a bomb calorimeter to see what he was worth.

Sorry, you have to be an ecologist to appreciate the humor.

But Eugene Odum was author of a book, "Fundamentals of Ecology", which was influential in popularizing the ecosytem concept. For better or worse, much of the public is now familiar (correctly or incorrectly) with the term largely to his efforts. He was the creator of the Institute of Ecology at UGa and spent most of his time there in later years. Earlier he had done a great deal of research at the Savannah River Ecology Lab, also largely his creation. He was a good guy.

[CA_Scouter]

Pack,

 

Think of it as a Scandanavian exclamation point.

 

OOFDA!

 

... at least that's how we use it..

 

 

[Trevorum]

Y'all lay off ol' Beavah's accent now, hear? Or I'll be fixin' to whup ya' upside.