Republican senator tries to snag Marty Walsh with a gotcha moment but fails miserably
By adamg on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 11:52am
Katie Trojano at the Dorchester Reporter has been livetweeting Marty Walsh's confirmation hearings as the next labor secretary and reports on a Republican senator trying to blindside Marty Walsh as an elitist East Coast lib with one of those old Andy Hiller-type questions:
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) asks Walsh about the cost of living in Boston, where did he get his last cup of coffee and for how much? Walsh says: "Probably Doughboys Donuts and it was about $1.75."
— Katie Trojano (@katie_trojano) February 4, 2021
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Then he said coffee is free in Kansas.
As if that was a rebuttal.
Imagine asking someone from
Imagine asking someone from Boston if they have cheap coffee as if Dunks is some small regional brand the rest of the country hasn't heard of.
Hate to break it to you
Dunks isn't a national brand by any stretch.
That said
It is an international brand.
Moreover, it can be found in 4 American time zones.
True
I've seen it in Barcelona and Berlin - rude shock!
Here's the honest truth
I knew they were international, and kind of knew some of the countries where they operate, but I somehow randomly chose what turned out to be their second largest market. Who knew?
Midwestern Dunkin
Oh hey, that one dot right in the middle of Illinois is four blocks from my parents’ house.
Two notes. One, Marty adds an apostrophe-ess to
Doughboy Donuts, like there's a Mr. Doughboy and it's his place -- Doughboy's -- as we do for everything here (Legal Sea Food is Legal's, etc. I once wrote a piece about this grammar-nerd peeve of mine, with suggestions to restaurateurs on how to name their places to repel the practice.)
Second, a small coffee at Doughboy is $1.95. Pretty spot on, Mahty.
I thought he was giving more
of a shout-out to Doughboy Police Supply in Revere?
Coffee shop in Southie.
Coffee shop in Southie.
You’re kidding?
Really?
Sorry I didn’t pick up on
Sorry I didn’t pick up on your joke.
Sorry, folks,
Tommy Menino is the only Doughboy receiving my loyalty.
Hypothesis:
Hypothesis:
I think if we did a linguistic deep dive we might find that we tend to add an ‘s’ on to company nick names when the full name, when stated, ends in ‘s’. People say Legals (or Legal’s) because the full name is Legal Sea Foods. Some say Dunks or Dunkins because it is (well, was for decades) Dunkin’ Donuts. It would make a linguistic sense if there was a dialectical rule that some of us followed where when we contract full business names that end in an ‘s’ we simply move that s to the end of the short-hand version of that business name.
I am not suggesting we *should* do it this way, this just an observation that may explain the phenomenon. And there is the standard caveat with English that there are plenty of irregularities and exceptions to recognized rules.
I blame...
... McDonald’s.
In addition to this...
I noticed that people add an "s" to the names of establishments in general, even when there is no "s" in the full name. It seems like an unconscious way of denoting ownership. I have actually heard people say "I'm going to Stop & Shop's", as if it were owned by Mr. Stop & Shop. Though it seems a completely different phenomenon somehow than the people who say "Boston Commons", "Public Gardens" and "Boston Gardens".
One word
Caldors
Zayre
Zayre too. Back when it existed, I don't think there was a single person who didn't call it "Zayre's".
Ames’s
Up in Maine we had Ames’s, deah.
And
Zayres
The Book of Revelations
...instead of Revelation.
Don't be ridiculous, Stop &
Don't be ridiculous, Stop & Shop has two owners, Mr. Stop and Mr. Shop.
I go to Stawppie's.
I go to Stawppie's.
Coffee
Agreed. A medium regular will run you $2.40.
More
If you add in the 7 percent meals tax.
Looking forward to reading
Looking forward to reading this. I used to work at Friendly's back in the mid-80s, when the name of the restaurant was still officially "Friendly" (short for "Friendly Ice Cream," the name of the original shop out in western MA). Of course, everyone called it "Friendly's" back then, but at some point they bowed the inevitable and changed the name.
I wouldn't call it a pet peeve of mine, but it's certainly a regional(?) linguistic curiosity that has fascinated me ever since.
I don't think its regional
I grew up in the Midwest, and heard a lot of people talk about shopping at Meijer's or Kroger's, despite neither of those actually ending with S.
With you on the possessives tick...
I couldn't help but chuckle at the time stamp of the post (1:54 AM). It was juxtaposed nicely with the first paragraph preface of other peoples' incredulousness that you think about it at all, let alone in the wee hours of the morning. Enjoyed the read, though; thanks for sharing!
What a bag job!
More than obvious that every Congressperson at this hearing heard from their union donors and they want their moronic bag man in office.
Not one question about his abysmal record as Mayor on City contracts going to his white pals, no mention of Boston Calling or Operation Clean Sweep or any of the many fuck ups this idiot has put this town through.
So much for draining the swamp.
Draining the swamp
was the last guy. Do try to keep up.
I can see that the nuance
was lost on you. I thought Biden was cleaning out the hacks and the bums.
I'm guessing
You just tried to make a joke here.
Brian - You Are Originally From Revere
May we get 6,000 words from you on City Government in that corrupt little burg before you napalm Boston?
You obviously don't follow me on Twitter
As I'm sure our esteemed webmaster can tell you, I've written a lot more than 6k words on corruption and racism in Revere city government.
Who writes these questions?
Asking a questions like this just makes the Senator seem out of touch. Anyone, millionaire or not, could easily have just answered "Dunkin" or "Cumberland Farms" and "$2".
Obvi Marty went for the extra points with a small business.
Funny thing is
Starbucks ain't much different in price for a basic brewed coffee.
I'm betting Doughboy's doughnuts beat the pants off of dunkinchunks, too.
Sad.
Sad.
A Republican Senator couldn't even come up with an opportunistic gotcha question that had a couple of teeth, such as "why should we approve a Secretary of Labor who apparently can't capably screen rank-and-file candidates for leadership positions and has to suspend them less than a week after appointing them?"
To many in the GOP
Marty's real fault would be suspending the Chief instead of defending him.
Good question but no answer
With smart cards, who knows? Doughboy, no problem but at Dunkin, who knows, esp since prices vary (did you know that?).
I couldn't quote the current bus or subway fare even though I used it every day, and what if you have a pass?
Great answer but the mayor.
If only they had actually pressed him on real issues like when a senator asked him if supported right to work and he gave a nonsensical response and they moved on.
Seeing Marty and Doughboy...
I thought he brewed his own coffee...
Aside from the coffee question ...
Overview of Walsh's nomination hearing.
What else could I possibly
What else could I possibly want to know?
Personally, I'm waiting for
Personally, I'm waiting for the Sam Adams ad people to do the Your Cousin From Boston version of the confirmation hearing.