Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Re: discussion of fajo as a cigarrette, does fag as a slang for cigarrettes come from a spanish misspelling of fajar as fagar, which in Spanish would be pronounced the same (fahar)?

Also a faja is not just a wrapping in Spanish but is also, depending on the country or region, a girdle, which can be seen as a sort of wrapping, or a skirt.

It's my understanding that fajita comes not so much from fajar as a wrapping and how it's wrapped in a tortilla, but from the traditional skirt meat with which it's made. It's a much less expensive cut than steak, but if marinated can be quite tender. As it became known and popular in the US, the original meaning gave way to the Americanized versions with steak, chicken, shrimp, etc, and having little to do with skirt meat. But in several grocery chains in Texas, which cater primarily to Mexicans and Mexican Americans, you can buy marinated fajita meat, ready to grill, and it still is skirt beef. Comments?

In regards to "my friends and I …" vs "me and my friends…" as a naturalized American who spent much of my youth trying to fit in (I realized much too late that to really fit in with many of my peers- even professional ones- I needed to be less of a good speller, and less correct in my use of English, it grated on me to no end that my very intelligent children chose to use the less correct (in my view) and perhaps less formal (in yours) "me and...". They claimed they knew the difference and also knew when they would need to be correct/formal. As young adults, college graduates, and seemingly more intelligent than their Dad, I've noticed that they still say "me and …" even in settings where more formality or correctness wuold  be called for.  They're too old for me to correct, and a good relationship has become more important to me than their use of English. I can only hope that the people who would have one day judged their level of education and social standing by their use of the langauge, are less in number or have become more accepting of informal usage.

The caller also expressed confusion as to  HOW to know the correct usage, even when knowing what it is. I was taught to mentally break down the sentence: my friends are going to the movies; I am going to the movies, not me are going to the movies, or even me is going… And, of course there's the politeness issue of including yourself last; that's common in other langauges and cultures; maybe that's dying out with my generation- I hope not.