I used "y'all" in an email with some immediate family on the subject of holiday planning for later this year.

My father and my brother in law tried to tease me for poor usage in a display of almost flagrantly anti-southern bigotry (I'm sure it was not intentional, but I couldn't let the comments go unchallenged). On top of that, my dad's emails taking me to task for using "y'all" included a LOL and a freakin' smiley. And when I called him out for using LOL in an email lecturing me about language, he thought I needed it defined for me.

I am now aghast at my family, and have laid a grammar smackdown on my father.

Eh, it's usually a LOT harder to tell FTM trannies from bioguys than it is to tell MTF trannies from biogirls. Most of the guys I know who've been on T more than few months, and who've had chest surgery, you'd never know. A few, I can guess from experience (height is a big indicator), but even then...if they've got no tits and a full beard, how can you know? MTF's are usually more handicapped by the general height/size issue, as well as the getting-rid of hair, and the differing social expectations that make their interaction often seem awkward, as a female.

In my (much more limited) experience, this is totally true.

And when I called him out for using LOL in an email lecturing me about language, he thought I needed it defined for me.

Head would explode. Though I confess I do want to know how you used y'all. (Which I use all the time, having picked it up living in Georgia, and will never ever ever give up for any reason. Y'all take note.)

We were discussing our Christmas plans, and my dad and step-mom had asked if there were dates that were good or bad.

I replied that our only December plans were to spend Christmas with "y'all", so whenever was good for everyone else.

I seem to recall we had a discussion here one time to determine if y'all was preferred over ya'll, or if it mattered.

I can't recall the outcome. I think y'all was the winner.

Oh, it has to be y'all. It's a contraction of "you all," not "ya all."

(That's one of my absolute pet peeves of badly written attempts at Southern dialect, of which I've seen far too many in my history as a writing contest judge. It's not "ya'll," and IME Southerners don't say "ya" for "you"--at least, not any more than other Americans.)

Hell yes it matters. (Or, what Susan said.)

Oh! The How-To of the day on my Google homepage might interest some here.

[link]

It's like a guide to MacGyvering a small crossbow from objects at hand.

Speaking of which: Vote MacGyver in 2008!

I'm still reeling from the anti-southern bias. My dad, PhD in education, the man who raised me to be the enlightened (to whatever degree) person that I am, made a crack about spending too much time around Texans.

My brother in law made a crack about Hee Haw.

I'm appalled. Appalled!

Sean, it never, ever fails that when I mention to anyone that my folks (meaning my grandfather) are from North Carolina, some asshole starts to whistle the theme from Deliverance. I sometimes think fat people and Southerners are for dog knows what reason, the last two "safe" groups of people to mock.

And it makes me furious.

(I mock Nascar, but that's only because I am a Formula 1 fan, so it's my responsibility.)