Dr. Metablog

Dr. Metablog is the nom de blague of Vivian de St. Vrain, the pen name of a resident of the mountain west who writes about language, books, politics, or whatever else comes to mind. Under the name Otto Onions (Oh NIGH uns), Vivian de St. Vrain is the author of “The Big Book of False Etymologies” (Oxford, 1978) and, writing as Amber Feldhammer, is editor of the classic anthology of confessional poetry, “My Underwear” (Virago, 1997).

Inventive Remark in an Otherwise Undistinguished Dream

Once again, I was lost, this time in a strange city — apparently, I was trying to drive from somewhere down south all the way to Vermont.  We park the car and my companion (a guy totally unknown to me, by the way) asks a traffic cop the name of the city at which we've arrived. The policeman says to my friend, "ay, ya" and my friend says to me, and I quote this lunatic absurdity absolutely verbatim, no embroidery whatsoever, 'He says we're in  ay-ya, which is West Indian for New Brunswick, New Jersey."  

"West Indian for New Brunswick, New Jersey?"  Goodness gracious, is that creative, or what? Another brilliant achievement of my dreamatorium.

One response to “Inventive Remark in an Otherwise Undistinguished Dream”

  1. Ay-ya sounds like something Katherine Hepburn would say. I think it’s a sound that emerges from the mouth of someone whose words are mangled by Main Line lockjaw, a dialect I’ve been trying to imitate so that I can fool the Pennsylvania natives into thinking I was born in Bryn Mawr instead of Brooklyn. I don’t think it’s a sound that would be heard in New Brunswick, NJ. My wife spent some time in Rutgers, and she does not recall anyone ever saying “Ay-ya.”

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