A Nappy By Any Other Name

I’ve been back in the States for so long now you’d think I’d have learned to speak the language of my birth. But no. I have been utterly confused by What’s-his-name’s “Nappy-headed hos” comment. Thanks largely to my daughters I learned what a “ho” is years ago, and I can certainly understand why that’s offensive. What confused me was the “nappy-headed” part.

You have to understand that I raised two children in England, Australia, and the Middle East, which means that when I bought Pampers and Huggies, the box said “nappies” on the side. So every time I read about this controversy, my mental image was of a person wearing, well, a Pampers on her head. It wasn’t until Steve said something the other day that I went, “Oh, oh! I get it! Nappy as in NAP. I was thinking diapers! No wonder it didn’t make any sense.”

Steve, of course, howled. The silliest part about this mistake is that “nappy” is one Britishism I never adopted. Yet I heard it so much for so many years that I automatically associated it with diapers.

The hardest part of all this is that if I had an accent I could get away with ordering chips and talking about car parks and punch ups. Since I sound like an American, people just think I’m weird. Okay, maybe I am weird.

And thick.