Making Light:  Open thread 82 ::: March 26, 2007, 08:05 PM

Serge @ 883--English gets to alter the pronunciation of its loan
words.  But 'fam' is quite an odd pronunciation, since the French say
something much more like 'fum'.  But feem, fime, foam, or fum, only
context will tell you whether they mean "idiomatically French woman"
or "feminine-acting lesbian" or probably some other meaning that
doesn't come to mind just now.

Speaking of which, David Sedaris had an excellent essay in the
February 19/26 New Yorker on how the question "Which one of you
is the woman?" is a symptom of how so many straight people are

  ...trying to determine what goes where, and how often.  They can't
  imagine any system outside their own, and seem obsessed with the
  idea of roles, both in bed and out of it.  Who calls whom a bitch?
  Who cries harder when the cat dies?  Which one spends more time in
  the bathroom?"

As always, he has fun making fun of the question.  He claims to have
responded "'Oh, we live in New York,' as if that answered the question."