Politics

I apologize for being a little off the subject, but this got me to thinking about the interesting use/variations of the english language that I have found in the islands. The first island I lived on I worked a night shift, and when the other employees came in to work and told me "good night" I was perplexed. Were they trying to tell me to leave - I thought "good night" was interchangable with "goodbye" when used in the evening. Then I found out it was a normal greeting in the islands! Then my manager (American), told me to stay away from some customers because they were just trying to "hit" on me. I thought they were being quite nice, and couldn't imagine that they were planning to harm me! Then there were the local sayings "outside woman", a perfectly accepted mistress, and "bang-up", when your man beats you, also acceptable, and supposed to be a sign that he really loves you. Do any of you know any more strange words/phrases?

"Mash up your car" means you had an accident or did damage to you vehicle.
"Don't study them" = Don't let them bother you.
I like the plurals also. There was an ad where the man was referring to kittens as "Lil cat dem."
"Limin'" which is what I'm doing right now.
"Melee" for gossip.

One thing that I have gathered and experienced on this subject is that unlike the mainland where people are more or less seemingly divided into:

Liberal/Left/Democrat
Conservative/Right/Republican
MixedMixedIndependent
Other

The V.I. in general can be divided into:

Conservative/Democrat
Conservative/Republican
Conservative/Independent
Other (mostly young)

If you're a Democrat or Republican, it's not big deal. There's no real national political power in the V.I. except for primary delegates. You cannot vote for the President. If you're a left-leaning active liberal, you may not feel that the V.I. is the place for you. Depends on the person. Just like anywhere else, you can find everything and every type of person. This is just a summary generalization, but you get the gist of it.

God bless the V.I. and keep her safe.
Simkiss

some local idiomatic words :
pascalam -- foolishness
popysho -- nonsense
rugudoo -- uproar
sometimish -- deceitful
strumoo -- scandal
sweet-eye -- wink at someone
two-pedal -- automatic transmission car, also ; mash an go
trimity -- busy body
cheese an bread -- an exclamation of surprise
reach -- arrive -- ain reach - not arrive
gone to come back -- will return

Although I am very Liberal in my political leanings, I am very conservative re my lifestyle and personal behavior. I find the USVI suits me fine.

When locals refer to an up coming birthday, they don't say "I'm going to be ___". They say "I'm makin ___".