THINGY

A woman with whom I volunteer at a local organization, uses the term "thingy" to describe objects she handles.

I am reminded about an incident where a person was to be chosen to represent the Division for a round table discussion about quality issues. The company's Vice-President would be conducting the meeting and we were supposed to choose a person from a supervisory position, but with "hands-on experience".  As my Department had the best quality rating for the entire Division, my boss said the person should come from my area.

I felt that it was important that we choose someone who would represent the Division well and this would also be an opportunity to showcase someone who could be "promotable".

The obvious choice would've been to send the person who had the best quality rating.  I stated that to my boss and I told him the name of the person whose section had the best quality record.

He vetoed the idea with the caustic sentence, "Nah, she might describe a fuselage as a THINGY."

I gasped and said, "Yes, she does say that and she also says thingamajig!"  He continued, "I cringe every time we're in a production meeting and she uses those kind of cutesy terms;  I won't risk her embarrassing the Department."

When I said that I had attributed that usage to her being from Tulsa, my boss answered tersely, "You know, that's pretty offensive;  I'm from the South, and I don't speak that way."

POINT TAKEN!