Sara, I think I love you.
either this was all a very careful and brilliant plan, or you truly are magical. either way, you are bloody awesome.
Damn good post.
i sent you a picture of me, oh so bershon. i apologize that you have to view such a travesty, but given the fact that i've translated spanish even worse than you have, it could actually be much worse.
sorry, sarah brown. it's totally bershaun. chuh. of course.
Wait, Janna, have you HEARD this term before? Because if so, you're the third person ever and it's two against one on the spelling and I totally respect that in the name of sociology and shit.
Also, the correct translation was "We know it's hard for you to to understand how the people of Lima live with five months of fog." MONTHS. Not tables. Thanks god I can wrassle the English up pretty well.
http://www.byrneunit.com/sheetsandblankets/archives/000277.html
Google says bershaun. Thats the only link with the word in it. All searches for "bershon" returned only names. You can't argue with google.
And also, it doesn't count that you link this site...it's the pure fact that it is googleable!
That doesn't count, because that is my friend Erin's site!
Oh but it does, simply because she was quick on the draw at getting the word out to the public! We can't choose a spelling if we never hear it! It could be the fad word of 05, like Olsen or metrosexual
OVERRULED. If anyone has ever heard anyone else use this word, I am all ears. Until then, I'm standing by my spelling.
I support the bershon spelling because the whole "aun" thing reminds me of Braun and Shaun. See, "aun" is such a name spelling. Bershon is not a name, therefore bershon is not bershaun.
oooh... i wish i could lie and say I really had heard this word before. alas, i haven't. but it's pronounced Burr- SHAWN, right? if so bershaun makes sense. however, if it's pronounced BER shon like aBORTION, then i can kind of see your spelling work.
I'd also recommend Vidal's "Myra Breckenridge" as a very offbeat, entertaining read (completely different vein than his historical novels). I've also heard that the three mystery novels he wrote under the pseudonym Edgar Box (http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/boxcovers.html) are worth a look as well.
And I think it's incredibly sweet that you cry on the train while reading books. You're a peach, Sarah B.!
Sarah, I've decided that our respective spellings of berchaun are the equivilant of Czar and Tsar. It only really matters when you're doing a crossword puzzle.
And Juan, I agree with the Myra Breckinridge, but having read part of one of the Box novels, I must say that I wasn't impresed. I was, however, impressed with The Smithsonian Institution. And props to you for knowing your Gore Vidal.
And it looks like I can't even spell it myself. Actually, my sister spells it "berchaund", but I chalk that up to living in England.
i dont think it was the intention, but that post was beautiful.
at least to me.
i probably shouldn't admit this, but i after i read the second paragraph i stopped, opened another browser and looked up "bershon" at dictionary.com because i didn't know what it meant, the whole time thinking my God, I'm got a degree in English, why don't I know the definition of that word?
i probably shouldn't admit that i do that ALL THE TIME while reading your site. i don't know if that's a testament to the quality of my college education, or to the fact that your vocabulary makes me all berschaunde (the French variant, meaning very much like Kelly Taylor in eye rollage and in disturbing lack of ANY FUCKING BRAINS).
Dude, seriously, the most valuable thing I learned while getting my English degree was to keep a dictionary handy at all times while reading, and to look shit up if you don't know it. That's courtesy of Jim "He-LOOOOO, young LAdeeeez!" Watson. I think what certifies you as an English major is that you bother to look it up.
I feel strongly for no real reason that it's bershon (sorry, poots). The "U" just feels unnecessary. More to the point, it suggests a German root, and while many feelings lend themselves to the German mindset, being bershon is not one of these feelings. France, maybe. But they've got "Ennui"; they've already made up their word. Bershon is, to my mind, a uniquely American idea, and something common to the words we've added to the lexicon is that they're spelled as simply as possible, on account of we're kinda dumb that way.
I feel like this is a grassroots movement that could really take off. I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it!
P.S. Brianbyrne, reading your nickname for Watson just made my morning. Early afternoon. Whatever; I'm about to shower.
can you create a bershon mullet site? cause i think i can contribute to that.
Sarah, I do not know this term bershon, but I do know this: you are the ruler of Ruling. I love your posts.
i am impressed that you knew what "fog" was in spanish even though you confused "months" and "tables." that's good for something, right?
In my eyes, this post just made you 138% hotter. You are awesome like a guy who walks into a room full of samurais and takes them all down without breaking a sweat, and then afterwards, lights a match on one of their swords and uses it to smoke a cigarette and then casually walks out of the room like he didn't just smite a bunch of trained warriors. That's how awesome you are.
And also, I feel that way about your sheer magnitude of awesomenity even when I'm not loaded.
I vote for bershaun because it has the word 'shaun' in it as in 'Shaun Cassidy' and if someone could find you wearing a Shaun Cassidy t-shirt that would be very bershaun. Now, not then.
But thinking if I could find a picture where I would now be bershaun about what I was like but maybe didn't realize I was bershaun then raises some questions about bershaun--do you have to be aware you are bershaun to be bershaun? Is bershaun only a self-ascriptive type of thing...or a first person emotion/experience like 'embarassed' or can one be bershaun without knowing it--like 'ridiculous.'
I mean, this needs to go in the dictionary someday, right?
I've totally used the word bershon since I was about 18, and I've always felt it to be a combo of 'embarrassed' and 'inadequate' but whatever. The important thing is I'm totally on the -on vs the -aun ending, because the -aun ending sounds so upper class, and isn't the spirit of bershon something that just isn't?
sb, you fucking ROCK!
Where exactly are you putting the accent in bershon? Would it be pronounced anything like Gershon, as in Gina? Because then I would totally be behind your spelling, she is trashy hot. Besides, there was a kid that sat behind me in Chemistry named Shaun that smelled like sour milk and used to shake my desk with his feet. That annoyed the shit out of me.
Okay, enough of this shite, Brown. The book. NOW. I cannot put understand.
I totally dreamed about this word last night. Like, I dreamed I found some weird dictionary online that told me it was from middle english and from the word Berdeschaund and I copied and pasted it to you in an email. So, I didn't email you at around 4am, did I? But the dream did say your spelling was right.
i don't know who gore vidal is, since i only read mad magazine, but i'm now of the belief that he writes presidential fan fiction and i don't want to hear a single word to the contrary.
It's pronounced just like Gershon. And I'm impressed with your dream, Courtney. I dreamed that I won the lottery but wasn't that excited about it, and then I woke up in my clothes next to a beagle and there was mysterious calamari on the floor.
Dooce, I know it was just a typo, but I have to say that I laughed out loud when I read this:
"I'm got a degree in English"
It seriously made my day.
Have you ever been to McSorley's?
http://www.hoganstand.com/kilkenny/images/mcsorleys/bio_page/mcsorleys.html
It is a wonderful little place with a ton of history, including a pair of Abe Lincoln's shoes.
Am I the only one who went to the urban dictionary first? Maybe that is a sign that the only folks who need it are completely unhip middle aged dorks with NOTHING. ELSE. TO. DO. Anyway, I found this entry:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bershinme
Perhaps you can figure out how to email Billy and find out more. Judging from his other entries though, he is a 13 year old dork with NOTHING. ELSE. TO. DO.
I would be so feeling of the pride of a sake by name of the internets. I am to be myself here with you....
i put understand.