"The information we're getting is that … Yeah. No."
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It's not just California English:
Q: Governor quickly President Trump is very focused
on getting America back to work by Easter,
call it an Easter resurrection of business and the economy, if you will.
Do you see any hope of that here in Massachusetts?
A: uh I think the- um the guidance we're getting from
the advisory committee that was set up by
the command center and by Secretary Sutters and
the advisory- uh the information we're getting
from public health experts and from health care providers here in Massachusetts
um
is that uh
Yeah. No.
That we're not gonna be-
we're not gonna be up and running by-
by Easter.
No.
M. Paul Shore said,
March 28, 2020 @ 12:55 pm
The intellectual strengths or lack thereof of Massachusetts's current governor Charlie Baker have always been a mystery to me, his Harvard credentials (A.B. without honors in English, 1979) notwithstanding. He and I went to the same high school, namely Needham High in Needham, Massachusetts: he was class of 1975 (despite his having been born on November 13, 1956), and I was class of 1976 (I was born November 8, 1958). I thought I mostly knew who the smart kids in my class and the adjacent classes at Needham High were, and he had no intellectual profile there that I was ever aware of. It's never been clear to me to what extent his slightly goofy-sounding speaking style is his natural way of talking, some sort of man-of-the-people act, or (most likely) a combination of both. I heard part of his midday coronavirus television press conference today (Saturday, March 28, 2020), and I couldn't help but notice that on at least two occasions he used the phrase "that criteria". Harvard English major?? Hmmm . . .
mg said,
March 28, 2020 @ 1:03 pm
@M. Paul Shore – There are a lot of reasons for people to graduate a year or more late that have nothing to do with intellect or lack thereof. For just one example, my extremely intelligent niece lost a year due to illness requiring a long hospitalization. Regardless of one's opinion of Gov. Baker, graduating a year late isn't evidence of anything.
M. Paul Shore said,
March 28, 2020 @ 1:09 pm
It isn’t necessarily evidence of something. But it might be evidence of something.
Barbara Phillips Long said,
March 28, 2020 @ 4:49 pm
Today I was reading this article about New Zealand writers (and the supposed regional lack thereof) from Sept. 2018, which concludes with this:
”So yeah nah, Northland’s got heaps, bro. Heaps.“
https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/19-09-2018/does-literature-exist-north-of-auckland/
AntC said,
March 28, 2020 @ 5:23 pm
'Yeah. Nah' and variations is definitely an Antipodean thing.
Look on YouTube for 'Ozzy Man Reviews …' or similar. Nah. Yeah. Nah, nah, nah.
John Swindle said,
March 28, 2020 @ 8:59 pm
"Right. The answer is no." "Indeed. The answer is no." "Yes, I understand. The answer is no."
Not to be confused with "yeah, no?", which at least here in Hawaii means that I agree with what you've said and agree that it's remarkable.
A: Hey, the writing on his hat is backwards.
B: Yes, isn't it?
M. Paul Shore said,
March 29, 2020 @ 7:01 am
Looking back at my comment (#1, above) a day later, I’m starting to think maybe I was too snide about Charlie Baker. I wrote the comment less than an hour after being preliminarily irritated by his press conference mentionings of “that criteria”; and subsequently seeing his seeming verbal awkwardness in the transcript of his remarks about economic revival really set me off. Looking at the video, though, I can see now how he was just feeling his way, in a manner not entirely devoid of suavity, towards a tactful answer to a very politically sensitive question. (And I should mention that his record shows that, among Republican governors, he’s one of the least concerned about what Trump and Trumpians think.)
Full disclosure: My main annoyance with Charlie Baker is over his lack of support for the proposed Boston North-South Rail Link project, a lack of support that project proponent, three-time Massachusetts governor, and Harvard Law grad Michael Dukakis has subtly hinted raises doubts about Charlie Baker’s overall intellectual competence not entirely different from the doubts I myself raised in my earlier comment. (There’s a lot that can be said about the North-South Rail Link issue, but to avoid topic creep I’ll leave off about it now.)
Rose Eneri said,
March 29, 2020 @ 8:40 am
I have no problem parsing "yeah, no." To me, depending on the context it could mean any of the following.
"Yeah, he said that, but we are not going to do it or it's not going to happen." This is how Governor Baker meant it.
"Yeah, I hear what you are saying, but I do not agree."
"Yeah, you could think that, but you'd be wrong." This "yeah, no" is often spoken by drawing out the yeah then suddenly saying no. This conveys an attitude more like, "Yeah, only an idiot would think that, so no I don't."
Rodger C said,
March 29, 2020 @ 11:43 am
Could it be evidence of evidence of something?