Dr. Frank's What's-it

I think I need a lesson or two in ebonics before I can understand what the author was writing about. I be, You be, He be, She be, We be..... dat's about all dat I knows....yeah, I be trippin'

so, i take it that "you mide" is the same as "your mind"?

Mentally ill people are always scribbling things on pieces of paper. They also always carry all their stuff in really crinkly plastic bags. Sometimes scraps of paper with their mentally ill ravings fall from the crinkly bags and end up on the ground near bus stops or train platforms, places where pedestrians have to stand still, and hence target areas for mentally ill panhandlers. Kisha and her interlocutor are the same schizophrenic person, betcha.

The language in that is terrible, and, I don't mean the vulgarity. You can make fun of it as much as you want, but you have to realize why it's so bad. As someone who talks to people from all over the country everyday, and hears everything you can possibly imagine, including 40 year old women who can't read what they're looking at so they spell it to me instead, you'll start to really feel bad for these people and the lack of education that was given to them.
Yes, it's funny to read. Yes, I would love to find something like that. But, don't be too critical. You could have ended up the exact same way.

Don't mean to be down on everything, but it gets really depressing when you realize how small a priority education is, or seems to be in this country.

whoa whoa whoa.

are you trying to imply because someone has poor use of proper english grammar that they're completely uneducated?

for all you know, this fellow might be THE GHETTO PHYSICIST.

he might be working away on quantum theory treatises in some dilipidated house where he lives with his baby's momma and five kids somewhere west of MLK.

in addition, you cannot deny that motherfucken street jargon is highly evolved, yo.

Anyone else read Joseph Mitchell -- or did anyone see the mediocre movie based on some of his essays called "Joe Gould's Secret?"

Frank, I think you may have found a missing page from the great, mythical "An Oral History of Our Time."

A mide is a terrible thing.

How did i know all the effete rich white college kid hipsters would find endless humour in some poor urban dweller's personal problems on paper. nauseating.

Personal Problems on Paper -- that's a great album title.

I've heard terms like "ebonics" and "Ghetto" (read "black") tossed around in the letters section here, but I don't think that I should have to point out (although I will anyway) that undereducated whites are just as back-asswards as undereducated blacks, if not more. I live in the predominantly white midwest and believe me...some of the Jerry Springer guests living here can only aspire to piecing together as many sentences as seen on that Kisha thing. Long story short: Amy 80 had it right. The education system is really beginning to unravel.

Btw, when I wrote "heard" up above, I really meant "heard": my roommate read these to me while I was cooking.

"You is fuck up for send me that shit." Hahaha, that made me laugh. No one seems to care about grammar anymore. Sad.

I especially hate it when people write the word "you" as just "u"... but that's just me.

well i disagree. this is a great scribbling. it all makes sense and gets the point across. that's not bad grammar. at least you understand it. and stop feeding us that line on not knowing ebonics. it's tired. langauge is evolving. get with it. faux hipster biatch; well as they say and all o' dat.

he screwed some BITCH and then the foo' comes 'round for soma this pussy. fuck him.

i love this kind of stuff! there's a lot of good found letters and photos at:
www.foundmagazine.com

yeah, well it's only good for a laugh.

I'm rich and hip? How come nobody told me?

this is what i think...

while i do tend to find these things
comical on some debase level..it is
not long unitl i realize it is on a mean
and debased level...not what i want to be.

while this person isn't probably in the
level of quality humans(as if anyone is)she
probably doesn't know any better/never had
anyone to teach her/and/or is the product of
california's awful school system.

yes i know there is a typo...
don't start making fun of my spelling

Typos are understandable, but why do so many commenters think capitalization is optional?

'cause i said so yo.

especially i's never i's,maybe proper
nouns ever once in a while.

Also, because we're lazy, we get in a hurry when we type this junk and it's not important enough to worry about proofreading.

and dat be da dillie-o, yo.

it's definitely the laziness--well, that's why i don't capitalize. and the way i feel is, you should probably be able to know what i'm saying; capitalization is for formal writings...i think this is the internet equivalent of colloquial speech. or something. i do capitalize correctly when i'm writing by hand though. hm, weird.

just me wrote:

she probably doesn't know any better/never had
anyone to teach her/and/or is the product of
california's awful school system.

---

i'm a substitute teacher in west contra costa county (bay area), which is on the news all the time for having huge budget problems. so far i have yet to sub in any school where the teachers aren't trying very hard. it's not simply "california's awful school system." there are so many problems which start outside of school, and simply are not the fault of the "school system." one good litmus test for politicians is if they act like the main problem in education is "classrooms without textbooks." many of the schools in my district are in the bottom 10th percentile, and the problem is not a lack of textbooks. it's bad behavior, low motivation, and essentially kids' not seeing that there's a connection between trying in school and having more options after school. obviously there are problems in the "school system," but the main problems are societal and socioeconomic, and that's what's reflected in kisha's letter.

My first thought is to wonder where/when the seemingly steady worsening of the average kid's writing will end.

My second thought is to remember how, until very recently, a huge percentage of adults were completely illiterate. If this note could be said to be from an average world citizen, it would represent a fundamental improvement in global literacy over the last century.

Third thought: Mide? Mide!? Ugh.

I still say the guy is mental case.

Lexington Green,

I have an expandable file folder filled with letters from mentally ill people. All of the letters were sent via USPS, not found at a BART station (gratuitous use of capital letters). The letter from Kisha’s man isn’t even in the same league with my collection of truly mental ramblings. His is a passionate plea to his woman, not a nonsensical missive about UFOs or government agents living in the walls of his home. I would contend that Kisha’s man is not mentally ill at all.

I’d love to see the actual letter. Do you suppose Mr. Kisha’s man has good penmanship?

Just look at ourselves, arguing on the internet about a piece of paper found on the ground at a bus stop. Jeebus, we're pathetic.

okay look,i'm not about to support california's
lack of funding so kids from all communities
can get a decent education. or their lack of
support for good teachers for that matter. but
i'm also not about to pretend that all teachers
are the world's gift to itself because it just isn't that way. that's why we have to have prizes for amazing teachers,because as many good teachers
there are they are in the minority.

also,i agree that it is social i.e. the "and/or"
california education comment. nothing else before
that junction refered to education.

forgive me if i implyed otherwise.

just me wrote:

"i'm not about to support california's
lack of funding so kids from all communities
can get a decent education."
-----
it's not about supporting a lack of funding. no one's in favor of that. it's about recognizing that the problem with education in california is not just, or even mainly about money, because that makes it sound like there's an easy fix. and that's why i resent the line about "classrooms without textbooks" - as if that's all we need, lots more textbooks. i didn't have textbooks for two weeks for a science class, and it was actually possible to photocopy from the textbook i had. i'm kind of split about giving "prizes" to great teachers. obviously great teachers deserve them, but i don't think they do it for the prizes, and i don't think you'll entice potential great teachers with prizes. one reason it's hard to be a great teacher in ghetto schools is that you have to deal with so many more discipline problems than you do in middle class schools. and then you have people talking about "bad schools," as if they're full of untalented, uncaring teachers, and that's why the kids are failing. do you really think kisha never had a teacher who tried his or her best to get her to care about reading and writing?

"do you really think kisha never had a teacher who tried his or her best to get her to care about reading and writing?"

kisha didn't write the letter, dummy, the man she (loves) did.

kisha what now...??

so we weren't paying attention...oh well..
all former comments are then about kisha's
fellow who did write the letter.

and as i forgot to say...no...but if you admit
their is a problem at all in california's level
of education compared to the rest of the country
than a still say that is a PERCENTAGE of the
problem with some of the kids these days.

i'm not saying all kids are innocent victims either,but we're certainly not doing enough
to help them. also,REMEMBER,i do not live in
the realm most call reality... i live in Beth's
Little Perfect World OF Happy Bunnies.

It's interesting that so many of you are concerned with the grammar. I used to be more concerned with "red-penciling" people's spelling and grammar. Now, I think the most striking thing about this letter is the emotion and the anger. It reminds me of some letters I received from a boyfriend long ago.

Beth, do you actually OWN a bunny? because they chew everything you own. Not that they aren't delightful pets or anything...but yeah.

no,i only live their happy world where
they sing of sunshine and gumdrops :)

i would like a bunny though.

I have a bunny. His name is Frank and he tells me the future and makes me do bad things.

After 38 comments...I propose that lyrics be written for a song entitled, "Hard-Hearted Kisha," with accompanying thank yous in the liner notes of course. Dr. Frank, get to work.

Beth's in her own world and we're not a part of it. Hop Hop.

was that supposed to be a lyric? i'm not
sure how I feel about that.;)

perhaps resemblant of SW's "Real Cool
Club" or whatever its called?

I guess nobody got the bunny comment I made. Check out a movie called "Donnie Darko" it sucks, but it's relevant to the topic of bunnies and mental illness. The bunny's name is Frank too! Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

lyrics:
I can't sleep
I can't think
Just wanna kill my shrink

Don't whine and don't complain
This fucking rabbit
He's in my brain

Don't run and don't shout
A plane just crashed into my house

Don't whine and don't complain
And don't call me insane

Go go go, Donnie Darko!
Go go go, Donnie Darko!

Yeah, it sucks but I play it like Jap-pop/punk and it'd make a good cartoon show intro....

oh i kind of did...i remember my more morose
friends were always raving about that movie.

don't get me started.

Acshully that's "Falling Apart" i was referencing. But close. Sort of.

Y'all niggaz be talkin shit bout something y'a'' dont even knizzow. ill sew your eyelids open and keep feedin you and feedin you. ya best baleedat. y'all best mide your own bizness fo you catch wreck. thats a personal letter from me to my nigress, muthafucka.

How timely: http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/21/film.darko.reut/index.html

That letter reminds me of an inner-city version of "I'm Like Yeah, But She's All No." Next time I go to an MTX show, I'll put in my request for that song, along with a dedication to Hard-Hearted Kisha's suitor.

that's just too funny.

Hey mr t experience, you should cover "ever fallen in love" by the buzzcocks. now there's a song about a girl, all right. actually i'd like to write a song with you. i have a lot of disturbing funny sentiments to share. maybe i should just write some songs anyway. oh boy did i just say that.