For the first time in a long time, Utah is getting national-level campaign ads. It's weird, like being on vacation and listening to other people's radio ads. Cruz is disturbing and slimy, Bernie doesn't have a prayer. Bernie's ad talks about breaking up the banks, which will make the typical Utah voter clutch their pearls in Red Scare horror. Cruz has a lot of solemn stuff about 2nd Amendment rights and patriotism that makes me turn down the radio.

Cruz might want to consider that those Second Amendment rights also apply to the gays and godless heathens that he has earmarked for second-class citizenship. Under the kind of regime he'd usher in, I'd be stocking up.

My in-laws, and to some degree my sister-in-law, come over all Texas when drunk or tired.

Paul was three when they moved away, so he just has a handful of words that he pronounces in a suspiciously Port Arthur fashion.

Pretty sure no Irish here, but, well, I think my paternal grandfather's parents were the only set of that generation who were actually born in Canada (their parents, though, were born in Scotland). Everyone else was either born in England or Scotland.

Suspect I am more likely to have trace Luso-Indian in the 200 years pre-me than Irish.

(I have reason to suspect that, though. I'm not just pulling a semi-obscure ethnic group out of my pasty white ass.)

My family are pretty solidly Irish in descent, but we're a long time from the homeland, so not full of the Irish culture. Or it's been fully incorporated into Newfoundland culture. But, St. Patrick's Day is just a ridiculous drinking fest here and to be avoided at all costs. When I was little my mom used to try to get us to go to mass, but we were having none of that.

I basically identify as Irish-Australian. There's a bunch of other stuff in there too, but Irish heritage predominates. When I was growing up, my dad used to play Irish revolutionary songs in the car. (Prior to about the 1970s, the primary faultline in white Australian society was between descendants of the English and descendants of the Irish, which split on religion, social class and political allegiance.)

We had good friends who live in Auburn AL visiting us recently. The parents have no discernible accents (father is from MI and mother is from tidewater VA, and can slip into the accent, but generally you'd not say she has an accent), and neither does their 6 year old. The 9 year old has a very strong accent though!

DH has the type of accent that results from spending his first 20 years traveling around the world. If he is talking to you he unconsciously adopts your accent. It is amusing, but I sometimes wonder if the person he is speaking with feels mocked. He doesn't do it purposely, it just happens.

My central NY accent isn't detected readily, perhaps because I picked up a few words here and there from living elsewhere for all my adult life. Seriously, how did I live for my first 20 years without y'all in my vocabulary? The boys speak much slower than I do and if anything have more Caribbean phrasing than we do. Their school and friend environments have a high percentage of Bahamians, Haitians, Jamaicans, and South Americans. Minor Oriental and Indian influence. Yeah, I think it would be hard to figure out the boys accents. They don't sound like us. I hear bits of many influences.

This story was part of my word-a-day email, and I think it's hilarious! [link]

Cruz has a lot of solemn stuff about 2nd Amendment rights and patriotism that makes me turn down the radio.

I'm impressed that Cruz is actually kinda to the right of the NRA on 2nd Amendment issues.