Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Stellar reporting job!

I know that there are many times when I mangle the English language, but this is straight from the newspaper here on Saipan. I am a nurse, I never claimed to be a professional journalist or writer.

I had to laugh about this when I read it:

"Hossain described the one who grabbed his bag as about 5'5” tall, dark skinned, slim built, and had a black boonie cap on."

"The driver of the getaway vehicle was wearing a gray shirt and was medium built."

Okay, the issues I have are as follows:

1. "slim built" shouldn't it be "slim build"?
2. WTF is a "boonie cap"? Is that some kind of Chamorro speak for a black stocking cap? Like a knit cap? You don't see too many of those around here considering it is hot as Hades every day, so I can't see how the name "boonie cap" would stick.
3. Again with the "built" instead of "build".

And the guy at the end of the article that was robbing the pawn shop...what an idiot. I wouldn't hide out under a shelf in the shop, I would have run.

If you want to read the rest of the story, click here.

Speaking of "boonie", when we moved to Guam it seemed like everything was referred to as "boonie".

Jungle=boonie
loaner car= boonie car
stray dog with no specific owner=boonie dog
stray cat with no specific owner=boonie cat
loaner furniture from military while waiting for your household goods to arrive=boonie furniture
Hiking trip through the jungle=boonie stomp
Hot as f*** little peppers=boonie peppers

Now I guess that I have one more to add to the list...boonie cap.

Back home, the "boonies" meant something like "way out" or "out in the country" in terms of distance.

"So, where do Mary & Allen live?" "Way out in the boonies past Dakota." ( I don't know Mary or Allen, it is just an example )

Peace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its amazing how English can get whacked up at times.. LOL

Thanks for the laugh!

~Kim~

Angelo Villagomez said...

My best guess for a boonie hat would be those fishing/camoflage hats that all the locals guys wear when they do outdoorsy type stuff.