Phrase. Colloquial. Meal plan refers to a specific regimen of prepaid meals per week at a college or university. For ya is a form of casual vernacular meaning, in this context, "to be consumed by you." Baby is an oftentimes affectionate form of indirect address implying a sense of sweetness, familiarity, and fondness. Such a sequence of words is typically spoken with a feeling of kindness so genuine and so rarely found in dialogue between two strangers that its mention immediately invokes one location, one city, and one college campus: Loyola University New Orleans.
"That'll be all? Good stuff. Cheers."
Phrase. Colloquial. That'll be all is an interrogative statement referring to a customer's satisfaction with the purchases he/she has made at a given establishment, retail or otherwise. It is assumed here that such a customer responds in agreement to the question, confirming that satisfaction. Good stuff is a common, rather jovial European expression celebrating or appreciating a situation of good quality. Cheers is a spirited exclamation typically spoken with such good hearted sincerity, such warmth of tone, that its utterance also immediately reveals its origin. This phrase pinpoints one city and can be frequently overheard within the perimeter of one college campus: Trinity College, Dublin.
To compare the architecture, history, or student population of Trinity College to Loyola University seemed to me at once both a noble and terribly mundane task. What catches my attention virtually every day as I continue my temporary life in Dublin is how an ocean, a six-hour time lapse, and thousands upon thousands of miles still don't manage to separate New Orleans from Dublin, Loyola from Trinity. The heart, the compassion, and the warmth of both the New Orleanians and the Dubliners transcends all geographic, social, and cultural boundaries.
Though both campuses are enclosed by various forms of beautiful stone architecture and quite a bit of cast iron railing, Trinity and Loyola share between them a heart that knows no borders.
Your approach to the post was clever. It reads like a an encyclopedia passage, but successfully directs the reader's attention to simple utterances that demonstrate the compassion and hospitality so characteristic of both cities.
ReplyDeleteNice comments on the people of NO and Dublin. Both are friendly. The comparison of the way people use language is also quite perceptive.
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