Saturday, December 19, 2009

Flinty Flintoids

A Flint Expatriate writes in about what it takes to be considered "flinty":
I grew up in Mt. Morris — not exactly Flint, but whatever. Anyways, I live in Washington, DC now and have for several years. Well, the whole point of my email is to alert you to this post at DCist.com about the big snowstorm predicted to hit the District this weekend. Note the use of the word "flinty" in the first paragraph. Now, I know the use of the term here is intended to refer to an attitude that is stern or unyielding. But for those of us who have moved from a state where 10"-12" of snow is hardly newsworthy to a state where the mere mention of a dusting of snow causes sheer panic among its citizens and every store within a hundred mile radius to run out of toilet paper, batteries and water, the use of the term "flinty" does not go unnoticed.


4 comments:

  1. Interesting concept. The big storm did hit the D.C. area and they did get upwards to twenty inches of snow. I guess it's an attitude you have to adapt to according to geographics and lifestyle. Flinty and woodsy kind of go together up here in the U.P. when you trek out to cut down your Xmas tree. Seems like we are used to the fact that twenty inches of snow is not uncommen here. What's uncommen here is paying a hundred on up for a tree. Merry season to all.

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  2. Amen, Ellen. I spent two winters stationed just south of DC at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia. A mere quarter inch or so of snow and the whole community is paralyzed and panicked -- cars sliding into each other, military on snow-removal alert, panic buying at the stores, etc. Pretty amusing for this (then) young Michigan lad.

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  3. amen. I just have to laugh. Decent Michigan snow though. Kinda nice to shovel again :)

    http://sonofneocles.blogspot.com/2009/12/death-storm-2009-approaches-state-of.html

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  4. Reminds me of an old Yooper joke. A guy comes in to a gas station store in the UP and tries to light his cigarette with a lighter. The lighter doesn't work. The attendant asks, "are you out of Flint" and the man replies "no, Escanaba."

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.