Political Nanny: Obama Calls Reporter 'Sweetie'

Madeline Holler — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:01:00 GMT

Barack, honey, listen to Political Nanny. This habit of yours, calling women "sweetie," you're going to have to break. Like, yesterday.

Wrong generation, wrong gender, wrong social standing, wrong, wrong, wrong. It's not charming, it's not collegial, it's not anything but cringey for women to hear from anyone but Grandpa or a waffle-hauling waitress (and she better be a good 20 years older than the so-called "sweetie.")

You apologized to the reporter, Peggy Agar. This is a good start. Now, stand in front of the mirror and practice. American English affords its speakers the luxury of not having to use parenthetical phrases of address when issuing commands, know what I mean, babe? So if you don't know the reporter/factory worker/ardent supporter older than 5's name, drop the "sweetie" and just say "hold on!"

Readers, if you must, the video:

Photo: WXYZ.com

Are There Cool Names for Grandparents?

Karen Murphy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:34:00 GMT

Mine was the formal family. My grandparents were known as "Grandmother and Grandfather." Bleh. That's a mouthful when you're a kid. But we didn't see them often and it was only awkward once every few years. My kids call their grandparents "Grandma and Grandpa." Original! It took my parents awhile to get used to their new names; my dad especially failed to respond on more than one occasion when someone addressed him as "Grandpa."

But I hear kids all over addressing their grandparents by all sorts of other names: Grammie, Pop-Pop, Nana, Meemaw, Paw Paw...

Ugh.

There has to be something better. But between the natural speech impediments of children who can't wrap their lips around long words, let alone (sometimes) short ones like "spoon", and the inherent inertia regarding the naming of the people closest to us (not everyone wants to be a "Glamma"), there just aren't that many decent nicknames for grandparents.

I was hoping this message board about names for grandparents would provide something interesting, to no avail. It's full of Grammies and Grandpas and Nanas and Papas. This entreaty to submit cool grandparent names is what got me to thinking about the whole thing to begin with: I kind of like "Chief".

C'mon, I know you Strollerderby readers are up on these sorts of things. Surely tons of you have kids who have developed interesting monikers for your parents. My dad would go for his grandkids calling him by first name. in Me, I'm thinking about using my first name too, maybe, when the time comes. Or maybe "Mrs. Murphy." What, too formal?

Strollerderby : nicknames

Political Nanny: Obama Calls Reporter 'Sweetie'

Are There Cool Names for Grandparents?