Do you know what people around here call lollipops? 

Sssssssuckaz! 

That’s how it’s pronounced, with an aggressive hiss on the s. I thought at first folks were trying to be funny, but no, it’s how everybody says it. 

19 responses to “Regional Variation”

  1. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    We called them “suckers” when I was a child.

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      I had absolutely no idea. Fascinating.

      Does anybody use any synonyms in their region?

      Like

  2. Fie upon this quiet life Avatar
    Fie upon this quiet life

    We call them suckers here, too. Maybe it’s a midwestern thing. But other places I’ve heard lollipop, which to me sounds a little bit nicer. So I call them lollipops now, against the grain.

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  3. Demotrash Avatar
    Demotrash

    I feel like I call the really nice ones lollipops, and little dinky ones suckers.

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  4. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    Off topic, but GREAT NEWS for Republicans!

    The fundamentalist idiot/pediophile Roy Moore has lost the Alabama Senate election, and won’t be around to muck up the Republican agenda, or have to be dealt with and censored/expelled after all. His loss is also a major slap to the comb- and razor-deficient Bannon, whose bravado about primarying all the 2018 elections should now be laughably tossed to the winds.

    The Democrats are now claiming this as a major victory. Well, let them! It’s also a major victory for sane Republicans as well.

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    1. Stringer Bell Avatar
      Stringer Bell

      “sane Republicans ”

      lol

      Like

    2. cliff arroyo Avatar

      “won’t be around to muck up the Republican agenda”

      There is no such thing beyond endless wars and endless playing the video games of digital capital (essentially the same agenda as the democrats now).

      All other issues are identity symbols and neither party wants to actually address them.

      Politics is over…..

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      1. Clarissa Avatar

        Yes, politics died a lot faster than I expected. Now it’s all about fresh outrage of the day over tweets and memes. Liquid capital has won and nobody even tried to resist.

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        1. cliff arroyo Avatar

          I assume that politics still might be alive at the local and maybe state level and it’s probably worth getting involved in that (and unions, !vivan las uniones!) but national politics in the US is now MIA and it’s hard to imagine anything changing soon.

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          1. Clarissa Avatar

            Absolutely. I’m getting more and more active at the local level and losing all interest in the national spectacle.

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      2. Dreidel Avatar
        Dreidel

        “Politics is over…..”

        Not as long as the Republicans keep the DJIA up and my taxes down, it isn’t.

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  5. cliff arroyo Avatar

    I usually say lollipop. The only ones I’d call suckers are the really big brightly colored ones (aka all day suckers).

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    1. Pen Avatar

      Those really big spiral ones are the ones I’d call lollipops–the smaller ones are suckers.

      Unless they’re Tootsie Pops, or the similar variant with gum. Then they’re the brand name, because that’s what I grew up with. I grew up with those tiny ones being called Dum-Dums, too.

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      1. TomW Avatar
        TomW

        I am with Pen on this, the big fancy ones are lollipops and the small ones are suckers.

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  6. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    “Sssssssuckaz!”

    The word has other meanings besides candy:

    (Image copied without permission from Shakespeare’s Sister ten years ago)

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      That’s the meaning I normally associate with the word. As in, “Another article accepted! Bite that, sssuckaz!” Or “another article rejected! Fuck you, sssuckaz!”

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  7. Vic Crain Avatar

    I grew up in Kentucky with sucker as an interchangeable term with lollipop.

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  8. Vic Crain Avatar

    Regarding politics: local is incredibly important. The state controls ballots in national elections (how many parties can appear, who gets on), and state politics produce future members of Congress. I’d love to see a situation in which professors across a state like Illinois or Pennsylvania ran in elections for the state legislature. Can you imagine a state legislature controlled by people with brains?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      A fellow Prof from the math department ran for state representative. And won! And she’s a great representative, by the way. So I agree completely.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor