POP-A-LOOZA: The Way I Talk (Brought To You By Pop Culture)

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is "The Way I Talk," a reflection on quotes and catchphrases that make their way into my daily conversations.

People often tell me that I talk too fast. I usually respond that I don't talk too fast, you listen too slowly. But it's a problem, and I have difficulty correcting it. My sister says it's because my brain thinks more quickly than the spoken word can match, which pays my brain a greater compliment than it deserves. No. My rapid-fire but often stumbling nattering is the result of a combination of personality and individual quirk, of nerves and feelings of inferiority clashing with an ambition to be witty, bravado masking awkward shyness, all fueled by a whole lot of pop culture. And coffee. But mostly pop culture.

I've always absorbed that stuff. The fast-paced patter and approach of The Marx Brothers, The Beatles, The Monkees, Bugs Bunny, screwball comedies, AM radio DJs, slapstick, and punk rock are among the hyperactive influences that make me wanna be like the heroine of The Spongetones' fab song "(My Girl) Maryanne," who triestogetinasmanywordsasshepossiblycan. My tongue can't keep up. The speech slurs, the words blur. And yet I keep talking, faster than a speeding bullet.

I'd like to say I can't help it, but that would be a cop-out. I can slow down, speak more clearly, enunciate with greater precision, when I make the effort. But it is an effort. Like Ringo said, it don't come easy. Just as I have to work at curbing my predilection for drumming on random surfaces, I guess I have to keep trying to learn how to convey my spoken message at a tempo folks can understand.

But speakin' slow or talkin' fast, my verbal lexicon will continue to incorporate quotes and catchphrases that tickle my innards, put a tiger in my tank, and set a course ahead, warp factor eight. "The Way I Talk" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.



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