Re: A Friday query

[BurkBrick -at- AOL -dot- COM]

>Some time back, someone (maybe Matthew Abe) posted some
>info on things to do in Minneapolis during the conference.  In
>describing a particular area he said something like:
>       "There are lots of funky restaurants there."

>Now "funky" is a word you don't hear much in Australia - I've
>never read it in a magazine or heard it in conversation but I've
>read it in novels and heard it on TV and I thought it was pre-war
>British slang for "cowardly" i.e. "in a funk" means "terrified".
>I also had a very vague idea that there is an entirely different
>usage that has something to do with afro-american music.

"Funky" is generally used as "cool" here in the U.S. However, when I was in
college ('81 - '83), a black friend in the student congress got very squirmy
every time I used it - apparently it meant "fuck" before being adapted by
white America. Similar to "jazz," perhaps? I remember reading a Mike Royko
column that had a wonderful time playing with "jazz" because the Illinois
license bureau banned it from use on license plates because of its other
meaning.

>By the way, aren't there going to be any posts from those
>who attended the conference :>(

Um . . . what would you like to know? I'll be doing a letter for the local
STC newsletter about my experience at conference - would it be appropriate to
post it here, too?

Barb