Wednesday, April 28, 2004

The new vernacular

Damn! I'm getting old.

Today I treated a couple of loud, mouthy teenagers on the Loop-bound Orange Line. I didn't even know I had treated them. In fact, until I could no longer tolerate them I had no idea what it meant to treat someone.

Apparently, to "treat" someone is to either a) disrespect them or b) put them in line. I treated them in the latter case; they took it as the former. Either way, they shut up once I treated them. Then the murmuring started.

"Man, white boy treated you."

"Naw, you the one who talked back, he treated you."

"Uh-uh! You got treated!!"

Then I saw that the weather word on the Sun-Times' front page was "fo'shizzle." No shizzle. I can only assume that one day in the near future the phrase "I'm Rick James, bitch" will be plastered on the front page of the Sun-Times to describe a wonderful spring day.

And that's the heezy! Represent!!

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