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muthafucka on the wane
Friday, March 29 2002
I walked down to the Barnes and Noble on 7th Avenue again this afternoon just to thumb absentmindedly through their Flash books. This time I didn't have any specific issue for which I desperately needed answers; I was just looking for interesting ideas for my chat project.
The weather was reasonable, so, after buying a pint of chicken with cashews, I whimsically decided to take the Q Train to Union Square on the pretext of buying some ethernet equipment at the Staples there. On the way home, I overheard a couple jovial black men having an animated conversation and realized that every place one used to hear the word "muthafucka" one now hears the word "nigga." I don't know if the word "muthafucka" is even used in contemporary Ebonics.
By the way, my Dad tells me that he'd never heard the word "muthafucka" until he went to Europe as a soldier during World War II and overheard it being used in conversation by black American troops (who, in those days, fought in segregated battalions). Back then, "mother fucker" had yet to develop any of the cliché qualities it might have today, and white Americans found the term deeply shocking.
Tonight Gretchen and Eulalia went to the Pavilion movie theatre over in Windsor Terrace to watch Kissing Jessica Stein, produced by a woman who used to eat with us in Harkness Co-op. Meanwhile, I was hard at work on my chat project. But some time before midnight I took Sally for a walk in the Long Meadow of Prospect Park. While we were there, I could hear, far off in the distance, the loud electronic voice of a burglar alarm. "Burglar, burglar, burglar! This area has been protected by a security system. Vacate the premises immediately!" It went on monotonously in this manner for awhile and gradually raised my curiosity, so I took Sally over to Prospect Park West. As we headed southward, the alarm gradually grew in volume. At some point, somewhere around 6th Street, I saw Gretchen and Eulalia walking back from the theatre, so I crossed the avenue to meet up with them. Gretchen saw Sally without immediately recognizing her and thought to herself, "Hmm, that's a cute dog!"
At around this time, the burglar alarm finally fell silent and a cop car leisurely cruised past. Gretchen and Eulalia told me they'd heard the alarm all the way from the Pavilion on 14th Street.
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