The other night, editor Hasso Hering had a footwear question for me.
“How do you spell ‘flip-flops”‘” he said. “Is that one word?”
I sort of rolled my eyes and effected a look of mild disgust.
“Call them ‘thongs,’” I said. “That’s what everybody who grew up around here calls them — well, middle-aged people anyway. Right, Chief?”
“Right,” news editor Kim Jackson agreed. “They’re thongs.”
“I don’t want to call them thongs,” Hasso said. “That brings up an image of something entirely different.”
“Well, look,” I told Hasso. “I grew up calling them thongs, Kim grew up calling them thongs, everybody grew up calling them thongs. Use that. It’s shorter, and it’s easier to spell. I don’t know how the whole flip-flop thing ever got started.”
“I think it was a Jimmy Buffett thing,” Kim said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I said. “Who cares. They’re thongs. But Hasso, if you have to go with flip-flops, I’d hyphenate that.”
What do you think: Thongs or flip-flops.
Myself, I just cannot call them flip-flops. It’s kind of like how I can’t drive into a gas station in my truck and just ask for “regular,” because when I started driving, “regular” and “unleaded” were two different things. So I always ask for “regular unleaded” — you know, as opposed to the premium I buy for my motorcycle.
If that sounds stupid to anyone, well, too bad I guess. I’m over it.
