I’ve written several posts over the years using the word “Newfie” as it refers to Newfoundlanders. Last week, one of those posts, written back in September 2005 (originally on my Blogger site and later transferred to this one when I bought my own domain) was found by someone who enjoyed it enough to leave me a comment relaying her own story which was similar to mine. Essentially, I had run into a person who was perplexed that I had referred to myself as a “Newfie”. She apparently had not associated the term as meaning “someone from Newfoundland”. She had grown up associating the term to mean “stupid”.

Ignorance is bliss, huh?

Well, you know how the thought process works, eh? You think about one thing, see something or hear something and then the synapses in your brain fire up and across and whatever else synapses do. Soon, you find yourself thinking about things you hadn’t thought of in years. Perhaps your conversations lean toward your newly discovered thoughts. My conversations did. I talked to those around me about someone finding such an old post and about the use of the word that, while so many use it to refer to themselves, could be used in hurtful and demeaning ways. My re-introduction to this word stirred memories of a “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” skit that made drew parallels to another “N” word as it poked fun of Michael Richards’ tirade on a comedy stage and his subsequent apology. In many ways, while usually not as harshly intended nor deeply wounding, the two words bring forth similar feelings and social consequences.

In true 22 Minutes style, they made the point very well, possibly seeing through Mr. Richards’ apology, and was hilarious in doing so. Here it is:

I try to avoid using the word now.