We’d already put the site to bed on Friday when news broke of Mayor Nutter, Governor Rendell and Commisioner Charles A. Ramsey’s joint press conference, in which they called on Congress to renew the federal assault weapons ban. By now, you probably have heard the story. Some Comic Book Guy from the Inky asked a question that started out “But it says on Wikipedia that…,” and nobody was in the mood. Ramsey, for his part, cared not a whit for any kind of ‘pedia and duly gave the world this wonderful soundbite, which we now challenge you all to mash up with the MSTRKRFT remix of your choosing:
Commisioner Charles A. Ramsey: “Add It To The Frickin’ List” [mp3 via WHYY]
But all weekend, we kept thinking: This has got to be the first time in a long while the word “frick” has gotten such an outsize portion of newsplay. We always regarded it as a Midwestern variant of “fuck,” of course, but as it turns out, “frick” belongs to PA, the same state that gave you such joyful pejoratives such as “jitbag” and “dirtball.” Urban Dictionary mentions that, while the term is indeed a surrogate for the F-bomb, the term originates “[...]from the oppressive factory manager Henry Clay Frick who was hated by his workers. Frick was shot multiple times by the anarchist Alexander Berkman, then stabbed repeatedly until Berkman was pulled off the mangled near-corpse of Frick.” And where is Henry Clay Frick from? That would be Westmoreland County, PA — more of a Penguins thing than a Flyers thing, but still. Yinz can’t say Ramsey isn’t keepin’ it real. Now go motherfrick yourself.
SuperTuesdayBlog: Dope, Guns And Fricking In The Streets

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 10:25 am.