adrian is rad

8/31/2006

huh, is that normal?

Filed under: — adrian @ 9:07 am

With my dad working for a coal company, I grew up around talk of mining coal veins and the like, but I was a little surprised to see this in an article about Centro-matic:

Centro-matic’s dynamic is intelligent, emotional American rock that mines some of the same veins as My Morning Jacket, Son Volt and the Drive-By Truckers.

How about that? Is that a common expression? Does your average San Jose (or other major city resident) know that coal (and other fossil remnants) is located in veins?

I always have moments like these because the linguistic hodge-podge that’s in my head: South African English, Pittsburghese, south-eastern PA dialect, geek slang. I know that 98% of what I say is understandable by the listener; it’s that last 2% that I’m never sure if it’s some specific or specialized term, phrase or way of talking that I’m not sure is in the common lexicon.

3 Responses to “huh, is that normal?”

  1. Anon. Says:

    On the subject of veins, the answer to your question is yes. Yes, indeedy. In Sacramento, they may be thinking of gold or silver, but still, the answer is yes. In fact and varmint who has watched old westerns understands intuitively that mining and veins go together, pardner.

  2. Anon. Says:

    On the subject of veins, the answer to your question is yes. Yes, indeedy. In Sacramento, they may be thinking of gold or silver, but still, the answer is yes. In fact any varmint who has watched old westerns understands intuitively that mining and veins go together, pardner.

  3. Colin Says:

    Certainly the expression “in the same vein” is pretty common. You could say that two things (works of fiction, art, etc.) are in the same vein to express that they are similar. Obviously, the reference to mining is not explicit, but I think the expression comes from the world of mining nonetheless.

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