Saturday, January 12, 2013

What's in a Name?

Are people from Flint known as Flintoids? Flintonians? Flintstones? Flintites?


13 comments:

  1. Flintoids, with out a doubt.


    Flintstones seems to be a more recent hip-hop associated appellation.


    Flintonians sounds dated, like something Charles Stewart Mott would say. He may have considered himself our patriarch, but I'm not his child. Time to put this one to rest.


    Flintites is what people who aren't from Flint use.

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    1. When I was a kid living in flint, the Flintoids were a lame gang that painted lame tags on the south side. To this day I associate 'Flintoids' with 'try-hards.' Try again, man. Oh, and I'm from Flint, and would be more likely to say Flintite than Flintoid.

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    2. Come say that to our face.

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  2. Flintites is the official name given in the 1960 World Book Encyclopedia. The article was written by Homer Dowdy, who worked for the Mott Foundation. Can't get more official than that.

    Flintoids is from the WWCK-FM promotional song "I'm A Flintoid" based on "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones.

    Flintstones originally referred to basketball players from Flint Northern who went to MSU as I recall.

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  3. I'd go for "Flintoid", too.

    > Flintonians sounds dated, like something Charles Stewart Mott would say. He may have considered himself our patriarch, but I'm not his child. <

    Not sure where this comes from. Mr. Mott liked the place, and got along well with the people who worked with or for him. I'm not aware though that anyone who knew him has ever said he felt patriarchal toward Flint *residents* as a matter of social welfare or personal *noblesse oblige*. He *did* feel that a reasonable use for his wealth was to help make Flint...a city that was then important to GM, which he helped make big and successful...a great place to live, so that people would want to work for GM. That however is not the same thing.

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  4. Flintoid, Michiganian (not "Michigander")

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    1. I'm for Flintoid, too. We're just a little weird, and we can make fun of ourselves. But also, the word is satisfying to say, that "oid" ending the word definitively with the sold "d." I like Michigander, too...just fun to say. Not too serious.

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    2. Actually me too...BUT...I read in Michigan History Mag that the official name was Michiganian but then I read this...maybe you are right.
      http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19890313&id=y2oaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2SsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4319,5439641

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  5. Crestbrook HammerbergJanuary 14, 2013 at 8:49 AM

    I never liked the names Flintoids or Flintstones.

    Flintoids implies that we're like space aliens.

    Flintstones implies that we're all stoners.

    The vast majority of people who lived in Flint and surrounding areas when I did were just trying to make a better life for themselves and their children.

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    1. In that case it would be accurate to label us Flintstonioids.

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  6. Michganoid... Michiganese... Michiganish... Michigani...



    ...or maybe something from out of left field like the "Dutch" being from Holland... maybe Michiganese could be called the "Plump" or "Plumpish"

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  7. Borrowing a page from Star Trek...Flintie or Flinter?

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  8. We should just stick with "bad ass".

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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.