Where the Hell is Smarmy, Ga.?
This just in from ... Smarmy, Ga.
There it was, right under the headline in the Wall Street Journal that said “Builders Downsize The Dream Home.” Dateline: “SMARMY, Ga.”
Wait a second. Smarmy? I’ve never heard of a Smarmy, Georgia. And, sure enough, there doesn’t seem to be such a town.
As the Nov. 13 article — and I might note, it’s a damn good article — makes clear, the dateline should have been Smyrna: The story focuses on Smyrna-based John Wieland Homes and other builders who are rethinking their McMansion-building habits now that it’s a bit more clear that most folks can’t afford McMansions.
Hmmm … smarmy. Webster’s offers up two definitions, neither of them very kind:
1. revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness <a tone of smarmy self-satisfaction — New Yorker>
2. of low sleazy taste or quality <smarmy eroticism>
With Smyrna’s transformation over the last couple of decades from white-flight haven to somewhat declining inner-suburb, one could argue that the city is traveling from the first definition to the latter.
It seems most likely, thought, that the typo didn’t hold any hidden meaning. I couldn’t get a hold of Michael M. Phillips, the writer, to find out how the error got into the paper. (he’s on assignment overseas). And a Wall Street Journal spokeswoman couldn’t tell me how it happened — only that the Journal ran a correction: “The Smyrna, Ga., dateline in this article was incorrectly given in some versions as Smarmy, Ga.”
My explanation: “SMARMY” seems just the word that might replace “SMYRNA” in a spell check. Doncha think?
If not, though — if these Yankees came down here and tried to call the good townspeople of Smyrna “Smarmy” on purpose — there will be Hell to pay! Hell to pay, I tell ya.
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