My sister has friend who was doing her student teaching somewhere in the Deep South. On the first day of her kindergarten class, she was calling role and asked the students to let her know if they wanted to be called something other than what the role showed.
When she called one little boy’s name, he responded in a thick southern accent saying, “Call me by my initials.” Now in order for this story to work at all in written form, you have to imagine what that would sound like in thick southern drawl. It must have been something closer to “Cawl me buh muh ‘nicials.”
The teacher, unable to understand his words, asked the boy to repeat himself. “Cawl me buh muh ‘nicials” the boy said again.
“Buminicious?” the teacher asked, confused?
“Buh muh ‘nicials,” the boy corrected.
“Well okay then Buminicious.” And with that, incredible as it sounds, the teacher made a note on her roll that the boy’s name was Buminicious… and she called him that for the rest of the term.
The five-year-old boy was obviously too bashful to correct his teacher, but can you imagine the ridicule he must have faced on the playground? My brother was quick to point out that Bumincious is only one letter away from Bumilicious. The poor kid was almost Destiny Child’s next hit song.
Now the best part of the story…
How did the teacher finally come to realize her mistake? Well, at the end of the term she had parent-teacher conferences with the parents of all the children. When this boy’s parents came in, the teacher kept saying things about Buminicious.
Imagine if you will: “Well, Buminicious is doing well in his coloring, but when it comes time to share, little Buminicious has a hard time.”
After a couple repetitions, the boy’s mother screwed up her face and asked, “What are you calling my son?”
“Buminicious.” Replied the teacher.
The mother became a bit angry. “And WHY are you calling my son Bumincious?” she asked, raising her voice in strong Southern fashion.
Now the teacher was nervous. “Well he told me to. The very first day of class when I was calling role he said, ‘call me Buminicious.’”
The mother thought about it for a few beats and quickly came to the truth. “He said, ‘Call me by my initials.’ We call him T.J.!” Ah man, how embarrassing!
That’s where the story ends, but it doesn’t have to be where the fun ends. After all, we now have a great new word we can use, and I propose that we make the most of it. Think of it—the possibilities are endless! Examples:
- Something cool happens; you say, “Whoa! That was buminicious!”
- Your significant other is looking hot; you say, “Wow, you’re looking buminicious today!”
- And so forth.
26 comments:
Could you help understand how I might use other forms of this new word? For example: buminision.
Buminision eh? That's sounds like a premonition that originates in your bum instead of in your mind. "I've got the strongest buminision that Doba is going to be huge."
When something is screwed up really bad, "You know what that is? That's a buminicious mess!"
When you're in a bar full of sailors and want to start a fight, yell out, "BUMINICIOUUUUSSS!!!"
When you want to stress that something is absolutely, positively guaranteed, "The best place to work at, guaran-buminicious-teed!"
That was used on an episode of "Designing Women" once. Anthony tells Suzanne, "I think what we have here is a Bominicious relationship." And then he tells the story. And that show ran from '85-93, so it's at least a decade old.
Amber, first off that's crazy that you would remember something like that. You must be a huge fan of Designing Women. Who remembers things from 10-year-old tv shows. Especially tv shows like Designing Women.
I had a sneaky feeling that the story was too funny to be true. I even looked for it on Snopes.com, but my little sister was so adamant that it was true and from a reliable source that I decided to post it. Sad. :(
That makes this post considerably less funny; however, I still hold that Buminicious (as I will choose to spell it) is still a great word).
Secondly Amber, who are you and how did you find my blog? Wait, that might have sounded a little abrupt and rude. I'll try again:
Amber, welcome to my blog. Now who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here. Hmmm... that wasn't really what I was going for either. Sorry.
What I'm trying to say is that with the exception of blog spammers, I know everyone that posts here. It's not hard since there's only like 5 or 6 people that read this blog. So I'm just curious as to how you might have stumbled across a blog so humble as mine.
I'm sorry! I had no reason to believe it wasn't true! What a buminicious way for us to lose such a great story. I'm having a buminicion that the story crusher leaves a sad and bitter life. Buminicies on me for believing the sworn testimony of a southerner.
Designing Women?! Man, you got to be out in buminiscios land to have ever watched that show!
T-Bone, I ask again, Why aren't you blogging!? Based on that last comment, I've got a pretty strong buminision that you could write an awesome blog!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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I found this post because I heard the same story about a completely different family who had a servant named Bumanicius. Same story, same ending. At the end of his tenure they need to cut him a check, but who to make the check out to?
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Just happened to pull up your blog today...and although it's from 2006,I have to comment, because I know the REAL STORY behind "Bominicious." My boss was a vice president at an ad agency in Memphis--great guy, loved a good story. His next door neighbor gave him the original story. A fellow walked up to the neighbor's house, asking for yard work. The neighbor had him do several tasks, then she asked what to call him. "Bominicious" was his reply. The fellow worked for a number of weeks for cash, until one day the neighbor was out of cash and had to write a check. When she asked how to spell "Bominicious," he replied with something like "J.T. Smith." That's when she realized he had said "By my initials." She told the story to my boss, who told it to me. Some time later, my boss was at a dinner in New York, and the producer of "Designing Women" happened to be at the table. When my boss told the same story, everyone cracked up, especially the producer, who immediately wanted to use it during an episode...and he did. My boss was both delighted and sad...he could never tell the story again because no one would believe it came from him and not from "Designing Women"! I've never seen the episode, but the story REALLY is true...and that's how it got onto "Designing Women." ---A former PR director from Memphis
YES!! I've seen that episode of Designing Women more than once! :-D
Unfortunately, I found this post because the actor who played Bominicious (Meshach Taylor) passed away and I was looking up how to spell Bominicious. To me, the "o" sounds more accurate than the "u" but, whatever floats your boat! :-)
Exactly! In fact, I was looking for the clip of that exchange between Suzanne and Anthony and found this posting. It's cool, though; some of the "new uses" are kinda funny.
That is actually the "Designing Women" telling of the story.
And it wasn't a kid but an elderly black man that was bomunicious.
http://michaelsalamey.com/tag/by-my-initials/
Here we are years and years later. I used to enjoy watching Designing Women and I also remembered when Anthony told this story. It's not because Designing Women was so great, although it was pretty great, it's because Anthony was so beloved and the story, no matter how old, was so funny.
Which episode of designing women was it?
Annie Dillard references "call me buminicious" in her memoir, "An American Childhood".
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