Tuesday, March 27, 2007
What. The Hell?
Familiar scenario: I’m out with my mom at Ikea (to my mom Ikea=Disney World) and we strike up a conversation about cheap places to find décor (because, like, Ikea wasn’t doing it for us that day). Here’s a snippet of the conversation:
Me: “I go to Tuesday morning, sometimes I can get good clearance stuff at Pottery Barn.”
Mom: Well, dear why don’t you go to Tar-jay?
Me: Where?
Mom: Tarjay. You, know, Tarjay…
Me: Oh, you mean Target
Mom: No, dear, Tarjay.
Me: I’m pretty sure it’s Target
Mom: I’m pretty sure it’s Tarjay.
Me: If it’s supposed to be Tar-jay, then why is their logo a Tar-get?
Mom: Nikki, you are so uncultured
So now I have this insane need to know. So I look on the Target website. Soap box warning: their company history stuff is not easy to find. But when I did find it, what did I found out? The place started out of Illinois. Now I think Illinois, as a word, is French, but I think that’s where the comparison ends.
So, is this a bougie thing that has just spread? I’m inclined to think so because of a few reasons:
#1 – everyone I know (with the exception of my mom) calls it Target and we ain’t even got enough duckets to have the term “bougie” bestowed upon us.
#2 – you ever notice there is not Target or Tarjay in the ghetto?
I notice, however, that Target is mysteriously ambiguous about the subject. I went there and asked an employee how to pronounce the name and I got a classic psychotherapist answer: “how do think it’s pronounced?” Now if I wanted to explore my childhood abandonment issues, I woulda gone to Wal-Mart, ya know?
So, I put the call out, much in the same manner as I did for the pick-up truck testicles (which I did get evidence of)…does anybody out there have empirical evidence that the store is called Tar-get? Cuz pretty soon, I'm going to be hanging out with my mom and hear someone say it wrong, and kick them in the Tarjay-jay.
Me: “I go to Tuesday morning, sometimes I can get good clearance stuff at Pottery Barn.”
Mom: Well, dear why don’t you go to Tar-jay?
Me: Where?
Mom: Tarjay. You, know, Tarjay…
Me: Oh, you mean Target
Mom: No, dear, Tarjay.
Me: I’m pretty sure it’s Target
Mom: I’m pretty sure it’s Tarjay.
Me: If it’s supposed to be Tar-jay, then why is their logo a Tar-get?
Mom: Nikki, you are so uncultured
So now I have this insane need to know. So I look on the Target website. Soap box warning: their company history stuff is not easy to find. But when I did find it, what did I found out? The place started out of Illinois. Now I think Illinois, as a word, is French, but I think that’s where the comparison ends.
So, is this a bougie thing that has just spread? I’m inclined to think so because of a few reasons:
#1 – everyone I know (with the exception of my mom) calls it Target and we ain’t even got enough duckets to have the term “bougie” bestowed upon us.
#2 – you ever notice there is not Target or Tarjay in the ghetto?
I notice, however, that Target is mysteriously ambiguous about the subject. I went there and asked an employee how to pronounce the name and I got a classic psychotherapist answer: “how do think it’s pronounced?” Now if I wanted to explore my childhood abandonment issues, I woulda gone to Wal-Mart, ya know?
So, I put the call out, much in the same manner as I did for the pick-up truck testicles (which I did get evidence of)…does anybody out there have empirical evidence that the store is called Tar-get? Cuz pretty soon, I'm going to be hanging out with my mom and hear someone say it wrong, and kick them in the Tarjay-jay.
