Is “holler at” good or bad?,

In response to last week’s imponderable question, “Is “holler at” good or bad?,”  my collaboration friend Tricia concluded, “As a southern girl, ‘holler at’ can be either good or bad...  If I say to you, I'll holler at ya when I can do lunch at the Skillet = that's good!   If I say the kids, don't do that or I'll have to holler at ya = that's bad,” to which my interfaith friend Ann expounded, “Depends on where you're from.  If you're from the north, being hollered at means you're in trouble.  If you're from the south, it means, ‘Hey, how you doin'?’"

My social media friend Mark called out, “Holler is bad. ‘Holla’ is good. ‘At’ is always bad.”

My temple friend Tracey understands, “If yer mama hollers at ya, it’s prolly not good. If yer friend hollers at ya, yer prolly gonna go out later.”  Another temple friend Richard added, “’Holler at’ means that someone is yelling at someone else, typically in a negative manner.  ‘Holler to’ means that someone is calling out to get the attention of someone else, possibly to pass information along to that person.  “Hoot’n Holler’ means Snuffy Smith lives nearby.”

My sailing friend Norm explained, “Here is the South, holler means  a small, sheltered valley: An "-er" sound is often used for long "o" at the end of a word. For example, hollow— "a small, sheltered valley"— is pronounced /ˈhɑlər/, homophonous with holler, to which my equestrian friend Royce noted, “It's according to which ‘holler at’ in the mountains, or who you want to ‘holler at’".

My production management friend Ray shared, “In the scope of my travels, and based upon my comprehensive interviews of highly educated scholars and others, I believe the "good or bad" question can summarily be answered by the few insightful words of prose that follow.

Few times I've been around that track / So it's not just gonna happen like that 

'Cause I ain't no hollaback guy  / I ain't no hollaback guy

That's BananaS / So put your pom-poms down clown

'Cause there ain't no circus comin' to town. / And another one bites the dust.

Please send me your thoughts about this week's "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":

How do you tell that clean clothes have become dirty?

Lord, give me a sense of humor; give me the ability to understand a clean joke; to get some humor out of life, and to pass it on to other folks. 

Hal

              

You can tell we’re no longer an agricultural society when schools start on Aug 1…

Thanks to Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin for the inspiration for Hmmm.   I invite you to call or email me to catch up.