I'm a bit worried I won't be able to find a pumpkin at Thanksgiving, as they're really only a Halloween thing over here. Maybe I can make a squash pie and just lie aout it...

Go for it! Almost nobody in the States has real pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving anyway since the canned "pumpkin" that almost everyone uses is actually a similar (but cheaper) orange squash whose name eludes me at the moment. (It's not butternut, I don't think - IIRC it's a variety whose sole purpose is to be canned as pumpkin for Thanksgiving.)

Cultural identity as a Yankee story: my grandparents spent most of their adult lives in Boston and currently live in New Hampshire, but my grandmother's family originally comes from Tennessee. As part of their annual book-buying tour of the East Coast (they're antiquarian book dealers), they always meet up with a group of women booksellers in Atlanta who my grandmother has become friendly with, to buy books and chat and such. On one occasion I don't know what the topic was, but one of them made a comment along the lines of "You're such a nice person/have such good manners, you know, for a Yankee." And my grandmother (who does have very good manners) said, well you know my mother's family is from Tennessee. At which one of the women in the group looked pointedly at one of the others and said "I told you so."

DH and I do identify as Jewish even as atheists who haven't set foot in a synagogue since my brother's bar mitzvah. It wasn't something we gave much thought to until we had the baby, but as soon as we found out I was pregnant we both realised we did want Dylan to be raised as a Jew, whatever that turns out to mean.

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People from outside the South often don't realize how much the Civil War shaped the psyche of the South. In the South, as Faulkner knew, "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." Think Ireland after Cromwell, Jars. My mother is a "hell, no, I ain't forgettiing" Southerner in the more genteel sense. The South after the war was dirt poor and the evils of Reconstruction didn't help. Southerners, therefore, kept hating Yankees long after the North had forgotten all about the war. (For the record, I think the Confederacy was wrong, wrong and wrong.)

vw! No ER!

I hope Darcy is going to be okay.

Sorry about the girl, Gris. It's her loss.

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In Ireland, this used to be the stereotype for Protestants. Why does everywhere have a group they stereotype like this, I wonder?

A fair portion of those Protestants ended up as those Yankees.

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Gris (& Big Duluth too) - points waaaay up to Bonny's thread:

::gives Sox an affectionate squeeze about the shoulders::...

eta: we cooked pumpkin last night - cream of pumpkin soup; pumpkin seeds (regular and old bay)

...and claps with pumpkin glee!

I made a truly nummy pumpkin-ginger soup last night with the castoffs from my lovely jackolantern (pics soon, I hope) and toasted the seeds with spices.

My favorite part if, of this part of the season!

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My hair is long and unruly: [link] (that's me with Barb Ferrer [fashionista_35 on LJ], for those of you who know her).

I am getting a significant amount cut after work today. I know more or less the length I want (jaw-length); I just don't know exactly what *style.* I can't have it all one length, because that looks like ASS on me.

Any ideas?

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I broke the thread with my neediness.

Okay, but if I get a bad haircut, it's all y'alls' fault.

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Teppy, I don't think I've ever seen you look like ASS. It is unpossible.

I like the length it was when you were in SF recently. I know it was a bit longer than your usual, but I thought it looked good.

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I have no hair advice, Teppy, but I think you already look gorgeous in that picture.

I can't figure out how to turn on the heat in the apartment (we haven't needed to use it since we moved in. I thought the "on" button would make it work, but nsm. I don't feel like dealing with my landlord today, so I guess it's wrap myself in a blanket day until TCG gets home.

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I like the length it was when you were in SF recently. I know it was a bit longer than your usual, but I thought it looked good.

It's just driving me nuts at this length. (And even at that length.) (But thanks!) I just feel messy and chaotic and all I do is pull it up or ponytail it anyway, which makes it sort of pointless to have long hair, at least for me.

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There are a couple of shades of meaning. It can mean someone from New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachussetts--and I can't remember if Connecticut is on the list or not), with a certain stereotype of thriftiness and humorlessness lurking in the wings. It's also a term people in the American South use to refer to people from the North.

From way back--Connecticut is most definitely part of New England/Yankee. I actually don't identify myself as British/Dutch/Irish/French American (my supposed ethnic roots); I identify as a New Englander. My family has been there for 14+ generations on both sides.

However, the concept of "Yankee" also has different connotations when you have older members of the family that grew up in rural, northern New England, as mine did. My family's "Yankee" has to do with being stoic, not complaining, putting in a hard day's work each day, and generally adopting a live and let live attitude. The thriftiness mentioned above? Oh hell yes. Talking about your personal life or getting "too personal" is frowned upon, which I think explains a lot of the Northeast reputation for being cold or distant to strangers. For my grandmothers' generation, asking people you don't know well any kind of question is intrusive, bad manners.

But my family is really far removed from the WASP old money stereotype, so I know my perspective on what it is to be a New Englander is skewed. I come from farmers and laborers (who were technically WASPs, but definitely don't fit the image that evokes). Despite the fact I have little in common with my grandmothers' Yankees, I'm very proud of that heritage.

ETA: I was shocked the first time I went to the South and came up against the anger about my home, though I understand where it comes from.

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