Re: Pip and Amos
in reply to a message by Martha
I don't think Pip was ever much of a thing in the US, no more than Pippa was. It comes off as very faux-British, and also trying way too hard to be ... cute, puckish, in a very Brit-lit kind of way. (Same for Pippa, but it's more like the bizarre-hats-at-horse-races-and-yachting-parties-with-people-called-Wiffy-and-Bonzo. The pimp thing doesn't even come in to it, I don't think.
Amos is very tempting to make fun of once kids learn about the excretory system. (I wouldn't think Angus would so much, except I have twice seen signs in restaurants advertising an Anus Burger. I wish I was making them up.) To me, Amos also has a whiff of ... blackface about it, because of the old-time radio and TV show Amos n Andy, who at least on the radio were done by white actors doing very stereotypical and offensive-by-modern-standards dialect. It's before kids' time, and mine and yours, but it feels almost on a par with Jemima; a perfectly reasonable Bible name with too much racial baggage. (It also has a strong Amish or Mennonite feel to it.)
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you criticize him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes!
Steve Martin
Amos is very tempting to make fun of once kids learn about the excretory system. (I wouldn't think Angus would so much, except I have twice seen signs in restaurants advertising an Anus Burger. I wish I was making them up.) To me, Amos also has a whiff of ... blackface about it, because of the old-time radio and TV show Amos n Andy, who at least on the radio were done by white actors doing very stereotypical and offensive-by-modern-standards dialect. It's before kids' time, and mine and yours, but it feels almost on a par with Jemima; a perfectly reasonable Bible name with too much racial baggage. (It also has a strong Amish or Mennonite feel to it.)
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you criticize him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes!
Steve Martin
Replies
Didn’t know that about Amos! Thanks for the info.