4 ms·

Communist Yugo-friggin-slavia While I agree with what you were trying to say, that was really uncalled for.

tripzilch 15y ago
I don't understand, how so? Yugoslavia was a communist country back then? Although I doubt that his experience had much to do with the Cold War, but rather the internal pre-breakup tensions, war and the Kosovo/Serbia thing during the time.
bdunbar 15y ago
What offended you - 'Communist' or 'friggin'?
- CodeMage 15y ago
  The latter. I'm sorry for being sensitive about it -- maybe it's an overreaction -- but over the years, it really wears down the patience to see the name of the place I grew in dragged through the mud repeatedly. You might say it's our own damn fault, you might say my parents' generation and mine are to blame, I won't argue about that. You may criticize the communism, the backwater mentality, the ingrained sense of entitlement and lots of other things about (ex-)Yugoslavia. A lot of that stuff is the reason why I left. But please, keep it civil, for the sake of us poor schmucks that loved growing up in that place and then left it, disappointed.
  - bdunbar 15y ago
    Nothing offensive was intended by the word 'friggin'. Sorry you got your feelings hurt. BTW a friend of mine actually bought a Yugo. We made fun of it at the time, but in terms of gas mileage and how much he paid for it, it was a big winner.
  - fabricode 15y ago
    There are many uses of "friggen" or the word that it is being substituted for, and in this case, it has nothing to do with denigrating the object. By putting "friggen" into the middle of a word, you're verbally underlining / emphasizing it. Really emphasizing it, as is underlining it multiple times. For instance, in the movie Pretty Woman, when one of the two friends is trying to figure out someone for whom a relationship worked out, she responds with "Cinder-friggen-rella". ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100405/quotes?qt0466870 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100405/quotes?qt0466870 ) I know this is an overly-long response to a minor issue, but I just didn't want you thinking that someone was making fun of your country. Instead, I believe the person who originally said it was essentially trying to say "a really, really, really communist country" had a more appealing entry system than today's America.
    - bdunbar 15y ago
      I never thought of the word 'friggin' as super-underlining, but that is a good simile and what I intended it to mean. Thanks!
    - zem 15y ago
      the technical term is "tmesis", if you want to read more about it in a linguistic context.
      - bdunbar 15y ago
        the technical term is "tmesis" And I'm off to wikipedia for a while. It's Friday night and I just learned something - the weekend is off to a great start.
winestock 15y ago
No, it is not uncalled for. Yugoslavia was the greatest thing that ever happened to the reputation of the Hapsburg dynasty. When my father tried to escape from the East Bloc, he was arrested by Communist troops in Slovenia. The commander in charge of the local troop deployment interrogated him and decided that he wasn't a threat to the state. He put my father back on the road and told him to walk. My father said to him: "I know how this works. You'll let me walk for a few steps and then you'll shoot me." The commander said "No, I'm not going to shoot you. Go." Sometimes, my father would tear up talking about it. That sort of thing did happen.

I don't understand, how so? Yugoslavia was a communist country back then? Although I doubt that his experience had much to do with the Cold War, but rather the internal pre-breakup tensions, war and the Kosovo/Serbia thing during the time.

bdunbar 15y ago

What offended you - 'Communist' or 'friggin'?

CodeMage 15y ago
The latter. I'm sorry for being sensitive about it -- maybe it's an overreaction -- but over the years, it really wears down the patience to see the name of the place I grew in dragged through the mud repeatedly. You might say it's our own damn fault, you might say my parents' generation and mine are to blame, I won't argue about that. You may criticize the communism, the backwater mentality, the ingrained sense of entitlement and lots of other things about (ex-)Yugoslavia. A lot of that stuff is the reason why I left. But please, keep it civil, for the sake of us poor schmucks that loved growing up in that place and then left it, disappointed.
- bdunbar 15y ago
  Nothing offensive was intended by the word 'friggin'. Sorry you got your feelings hurt. BTW a friend of mine actually bought a Yugo. We made fun of it at the time, but in terms of gas mileage and how much he paid for it, it was a big winner.
- fabricode 15y ago
  There are many uses of "friggen" or the word that it is being substituted for, and in this case, it has nothing to do with denigrating the object. By putting "friggen" into the middle of a word, you're verbally underlining / emphasizing it. Really emphasizing it, as is underlining it multiple times. For instance, in the movie Pretty Woman, when one of the two friends is trying to figure out someone for whom a relationship worked out, she responds with "Cinder-friggen-rella". ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100405/quotes?qt0466870 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100405/quotes?qt0466870 ) I know this is an overly-long response to a minor issue, but I just didn't want you thinking that someone was making fun of your country. Instead, I believe the person who originally said it was essentially trying to say "a really, really, really communist country" had a more appealing entry system than today's America.
  - bdunbar 15y ago
    I never thought of the word 'friggin' as super-underlining, but that is a good simile and what I intended it to mean. Thanks!
  - zem 15y ago
    the technical term is "tmesis", if you want to read more about it in a linguistic context.
    - bdunbar 15y ago
      the technical term is "tmesis" And I'm off to wikipedia for a while. It's Friday night and I just learned something - the weekend is off to a great start.

winestock 15y ago

No, it is not uncalled for. Yugoslavia was the greatest thing that ever happened to the reputation of the Hapsburg dynasty. When my father tried to escape from the East Bloc, he was arrested by Communist troops in Slovenia. The commander in charge of the local troop deployment interrogated him and decided that he wasn't a threat to the state. He put my father back on the road and told him to walk. My father said to him: "I know how this works. You'll let me walk for a few steps and then you'll shoot me." The commander said "No, I'm not going to shoot you. Go." Sometimes, my father would tear up talking about it. That sort of thing did happen.