Walkin' in an Essex Wonderland
Speaking of Baltimore accents (as I was in my last post), the best exaggerated Baltimore accent ever recorded is in 98 Rock's Twisted Tune, "Walkin' in an Essex Wonderland." (Though Mrs. Veneer claims she's heard more extreme Baltimore accents in real life.) Two hallmarks of the Baltimore accent are the i's and o's: pronounce a long "i" as "ah" and a long "o" as "ayo" and you're halfway there. Sprinkle your sentences with "hun" and you're even closer. Thus you get "bingayo" and "Arn Maiden":
Essex sits on the southeast side of Baltimore, its landscape dominated by the twin golden domes of the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant.
While Essex is singled out in the song, it could also apply to several
other blue-collar, predominantly white neighborhoods of long standing
in and around Baltimore. Dundalk, Highlandtown (that's "Hollandtown" to natives), Hampden, and Glen Burnie come to mind. If you happen to live in one of those places and you're reading this, I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you, at your neighbors.
