Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Dude!

A negative review of Poppy Z. Brite’s Soul Kitchen takes issue with her dialogue:

dialog—atrocious. do you realize that Rickey never once calls G-Man, his life partner, by his name? its always “Hey, dude.” “Yeah, dude?” “Dude!” between them. holy Bill & Ted! is that believable? is this how lovers talk?

A whole bunch of peoples—including Poppy Z. Brite—show up to say, “Yeah, Dude, that is what I call my lover/spouse/life partner/best friend/random acquaintances/vet/dog/neighbour etc.”

It is funny.

Personally, I do not call Scott “Dude”; I call Scott “Scott”. But he calls me “Dude” and a billion other things, but almost never “Justine”. Americans seem to have this weird allergy to calling their spouse/partner/lover by their actual name. It’s all “sweetie” and “sugar” and other weird things I can’t even bring myself to type. I am not much for cutesie names. I prefer “Dude” to “Darling”. But I like being called Justine best of all.

What do you call your main squeeze?

And, by the way, the reviewer of Brite’s book is smoking crack. She couldn’t write a bad sentence if she tried.

Posted by Justine at 11:24, 6 September 2007 under New York City/USA, Reading, Words & Language | 22 Comments »

Comments

  1. janet Says:

    I call Matt “Matt.” But I call my daughter “Sweetie,” “Boodle,” “Sweetie-doodle,” “Honey,” “Doodle-girl,” “Alice-doodle,” etc. It’s disgusting. (I also call her by her name.)

    September 6th, 2007 at 12:02 PM

  2. Jeremy Tolbert Says:

    What do you call your main squeeze?

    Lord Cthulhu, and absolutely nothing else if I know what’s good for me.

    September 6th, 2007 at 12:52 PM

  3. lisa Says:

    My husband knows he’s in trouble if I call him by his name. He’s “darlin” on most days.

    The 4 kids were all “honey” when they were young, but now that they’re older they’re all “dude”. I am terrible at calling them by their actual name – I almost always get the wrong name. They do get called “honey” if they’re hurt though.

    Really though, a million names get thrown around here – “senorita smoothie buns”, “math dude”, “scout boy”, “adventure girl”, whatever fits the moment.

    September 6th, 2007 at 1:09 PM

  4. janet Says:

    Yes, baby nicknames are a dime a dozen. I stopped calling Alice “Booper” or “Booper-girl” when I realized that people heard it as “Pooper.” Originally it derived from “Super duper flooper nuper cooper booper girl.”

    I’m not sure why I’ve never used any endearments for my husband. One of my old boyfriends was “[name-redacted]-monster,” which was a term of exasperation as well as endearment.

    September 6th, 2007 at 1:26 PM

  5. Dawn Says:

    I think that I possibly only went as far as “hon” with my last boyfriend. But since he and I are still really great friends now, and he’s married…I don’t call him “hon” anymore. It’s definitely at the point where I call him by his name. lol.

    I’m not really into nicknames myself. My name is short and simple and I rather like it.

    I’ve actually been told that my full name sounds elvish, and that it’s too impossibly pretty to be real. That makes me feel nice. At least my parents were good with the name-picking-thing.

    September 6th, 2007 at 2:22 PM

  6. Adrienne Vrettos Says:

    I call my husband, “Yo”, which I swear actually sounds sweeter than it looks. Using his name seems too formal. I might as well be calling him Father, as in, “Father, will you please fetch Daughter’s pacifier? She seems to be throwing a hissy fit.”

    September 6th, 2007 at 2:23 PM

  7. cherie priest Says:

    “Hey, you.”

    :-D

    September 6th, 2007 at 2:24 PM

  8. carlie Says:

    I call my husband “sweetie” and he calls me “babe.” The cats have nicknames, too: They’re The Buffalo (from “toughy little buffalo,” yay Toys Go Out) and The Cow (because she’s white with big gray spots and when we took her to the vet, the vet said, “This one has the cutest markings, like a little cow!”).

    Why yes, my cats ARE going to have identity crises when they grow up.

    September 6th, 2007 at 2:59 PM

  9. Rebecca Says:

    “main squeeze.” hehehehehe.

    the word “dude” comes out of my mouth obscenely often, but people have told me that’s a texas thing. i thing “people” are wrong, b/c everyone says “dude.” dude.

    i dislike being called “honey” as it has a condescending connotation. only my grandmother is allowed to call me “sweetie.” and if anyone ever tries to call me “sugar,” they had better run fast.

    i do have a tendency to call my pets crazy things, but they are almost always related to the pet’s name. my cat, luna, for example, is lovely luna (alliteration), luny (an accurate description of her), luny bin, bin, dustbin, and loon. i did frequently call another of my cats “precious,” but she was one-of-a-kind.

    so yeah, just pets with me. i suspect that if my main squeeze ever shows up, he’ll just be his name.

    September 6th, 2007 at 5:58 PM

  10. sara z Says:

    baby. doll. dude. man. honey bunch. love. and quite often by his actual name!

    September 6th, 2007 at 6:20 PM

  11. Steve Buchheit Says:

    “my love” although if we’re being silly, “oh, darling” but I still use her name from time to time. Now, what was her name? :)

    September 6th, 2007 at 6:54 PM

  12. haddy Says:

    errr i call evryone by there name and if its and adult it ms. or mr. i hae no main sqeeze

    September 6th, 2007 at 9:41 PM

  13. Laini Taylor Says:

    my husband and i almost never call each other by our names. when we do, it feels strange, like we’re slightly mad at each other.

    September 6th, 2007 at 10:50 PM

  14. trudi Says:

    I’ve always disliked pet names because they made me feel like a, well, pet. Or a child. And I have a deep and abiding suspicion that people in relationships who use a pet name do it as insurance in case of saying the wrong name during certain ‘intimate moments’.

    If a stranger called me ‘darling’, or even ‘ma’am’ I’d just assume they were trying to sweet-talk something from me. And I really resent it when shop assistants find out your name and start inserting it in their sales pitch. It’s supposed to be more personal, but instead I feel like I’m a comma.

    September 6th, 2007 at 11:03 PM

  15. vicky Says:

    i usually don’t address anyone by their actual names; to be honest, i usually don’t address anyone by any name at all, and definitely not with hypocorisms. it’s usually “hey” or “you” or “man” or “dude”, regardless of their gender or their relationship to me. i guess you could say i have the “american allergy”, so to speak, to an even greater degree than most.

    September 7th, 2007 at 12:46 AM

  16. ariel cooke Says:

    I call my husband “sweetheart” or “darling,” nothing too extreme. I use his name when I’m serious. I have a million nicknames for my daughter Eve and they keep changing. I used to call her Pumpkin Pie and Honeybear but now that she is so grown up (started 2nd grade today!) those embarrass her. The ones I am still allowed to use are Eve-ala (Jewish diminutive), Boo and Miss E.

    September 7th, 2007 at 1:41 AM

  17. Jason Erik Lundberg Says:

    I can Janet “sweetie” or “honey” or, if I’m trying to get her attention, “oi!” I hardly ever call her by her name, and it always sounds strange when I do.

    I don’t call her “dude,” but I use that moniker for my sister.

    September 7th, 2007 at 2:56 AM

  18. orangedragonfly Says:

    jeff is either “jeff” or “baby” (which is kind of funny now that we have an actual baby in the house). he calls me “kitty” (which has nothing to do with my name – stacy – but has origins i’d rather not discuss).

    xander (our little boy) is “xander-man”, “xander dander doo” (daddy’s nickname for him), “mister”, “mister-mister”, but most often “little mister”.

    as for the cats, they are hardly ever called by their names (arwen, éowyn, and sarah-bellum). the closest is sarah, who is often called “sarah monster” (because she is).

    September 7th, 2007 at 4:25 AM

  19. Faith Says:

    I call my husband Joe, but I also call him sugarlah, Joselah, Josephus, blondie-bear and anything else that happens to occur to me at the moment.

    September 7th, 2007 at 8:46 AM

  20. Carrie Says:

    I tend to call my boyfriend by his name, but he always calls me “bunn.” In fact, he has a ton of nicknames for me and I love them all — it actually makes me feel sad and pathetic that I haven’t given him any good nick names…

    September 7th, 2007 at 1:43 PM

  21. ariel cooke Says:

    After I posted, I realized that the strangest nicknames I have are for my friends: Audrey is Audreena, Lesley is Leslita, Lisa Lipkin is Lipkinella and so forth. I love their nicknames and feel a burst of affection everytime I use them. I also call my sister “der schwester” which is Yiddish for “the sister”

    September 7th, 2007 at 2:27 PM

  22. Anne Says:

    Like several other commenters, my husband and I hardly ever call each other by our first names as it feels sort of like we might be slightly upset with the other. Unless there are other people in the room and we need to be clear who we’re speaking to – then first names feel fine.

    We both call each other Dude. I call him husband and he calls me wifeband. I also call him Hub, Lovahman, My Man, Man-o-mine, and My Love. There are probably others I’m not thinking of at the moment. We’re big nickname people.

    September 7th, 2007 at 4:54 PM

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