Ghetto Slang/Ghetto Style

After accepting a job in South Central Los Angeles a few months ago, I expected to be learning cool, new, inner-city slang all the time. I've been rather disappointed, however. The only new slang term I've heard was from a library clerk who used the term "booty" to describe a bully or bullying.

My best source of African-American slang remains my friend, Rene LaMour, and her son, Sampson. Here are a couple of my favorite Rene phrases:

I was to' up or
I was to' up from the flo' up (That's Tore up from the floor up to all you caucasians)

I was too through

Sampson of course introduced me to the adjective tight to describe something "cool" a few years ago. Tight still seems to be in use because a teen at the library described my glittery, Chinese shoes as tight the other day.


One day a few weeks ago, a teenager came into the library who had a different style than the rest of the kids. He had a super-sized skateboard and a light-colored Afro with three hair picks stuck into it. A little girl said to her friends, "Ooh look. Three hair picks. That's the new style."

I wonder if the three-hair-picks-in-a-fro style will overtake the Allen Iverson-style braids that are popular among some of the boys. Let me know if you spot anyone with this look.

Aardvark? Bullshit!

There is a series of children's books (and apparently a PBS show) about a character named Arthur by Marc Brown that I believed was supposed to be a mouse. However, yesterday my co-workers who have children informed me that Arthur is an aardvark. (I wondered why those kids in the library looked at me funny when I asked them if they wanted the Arthur books about the chimpanzee or the Arthur books about the mouse)

I cannot accept that Arthur is an aardvark since he has no nose. About the most distinguishing feature of an aardvark I can think of is its nose. It has a long nose it uses to catch termites or ants in their holes or whatever.

My co-worker says Arthur used to look more like an aardvark. Here are two versions of Arthur I found online. One has a longer face which looks a little more like an aardvark.

Why is everyone buying into this CHARADE???






Below is a real aardvark.