"Judah" wrote in message
. ..
"Jay Beckman" wrote in
:

I used to work with a guy who was a US Air (the old, original US Air)
1st officer who also worked in sports TV like I do and he only referred
to light GA as "Bug Smashers," "Spam Cans" and the like. I guess 'cause
he had keys to a DC9, he could do so but he wasn't the first person (nor
the last) that I've heard use such descriptions.

Certainly the term "Bug Smashers" and "Spam Cans" are typically reserved
for light GA. But when he said it, I suspect he wasn't intending to
belittle light GA. He might have been poking some slight fun at it, or he
might have just been referring to it in a manner that he heard other
pilots
refer to it.

No, compared to the DC9 he drove for a living, he meant "Bug Smasher." ie:
Light GA flies so low you're down with the bugs. I can attest to this being
true considering how much "blech" is on the leading edges and cowl of our
club 172 when I've been out practicing ground reference or simply doing
pattern work at Casa Grande Muni south of Phoenix. There is a lot of
agriculture down that way and plenty of bugs get smashed...

No, you should explain to him that when a Black man calls another Black
man that, he's calling him lazy and stupid (something you shouldn't call
anyone to begin with) but that it does not have the same connotation
when it's used by someone who is not Black.

Perhaps in New York or on NY TV and Radio the term is used differently
than
in Detroit, but I hear Black men calling other Black men "My N*****" in a
manner that does not in any way imply lazy or stupid, or in fact have any
negative connotation whatsoever. I frequently hear the word used in a
manner that I might substitute the word "friend".

Ice T uses the term in his rap music that way, as well as in his own
epithet. And Eminem, who is not Black, uses the term in much of his rap
music as well. So somehow I don't believe this to be restricted to use
based on the color of one's skin, either.

In that regard, it's more akin to Japanese where the inflection and context
determine the actual meaning. I've heard it used as "friend" also in the
manner in which you describe, but with a little more "venom" and in a more
aggressive conversation it can also mean as I described.

Jay B