Madge - revised

[Erthona]

svanhoeven,

Thanks for your comments.
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Have to disagree with the first one.

Without "sounding" it would read as:

they pass by like fat people sex on a hot night.
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Then there are those women who trowel on their foundation.

Yes, more like that. Foundation so thick it begins to crack in the heat of the day, looking like cracked dough with a dusting of flour.
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"If you say "standard uniform" below, "ubiquitous" is unneeded here, plus you could stand to trim the modifier list anyway."

It is an ubiquitous (seen everywhere) dress, but standard for these specific agencies.
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I know this has been beaten to death, but "moe tea" doesn't sound right to me unless this in the deep south, such as Georgia, where you would expect a non-rhotic accent. I think you mentioned elsewhere this was Texas, where I would expect an exaggerated rhotic accent that sounds like "mower tea".

I think that is more Midwestern, in north-central Texas the "r" tends to be added on the end of a diphthong, however as this is the service industry, these people are often times transplants from the south, plus there is the tendency to shorten the word/phrase as much as possible because it is used so repetitively. Regardless, this is what I have often heard in cafeterias of that part of the country. It was also less about regional accuracy, and more about the robot like quality these people take on as they go through the repetitive drudgery of their work. I suspect they basically suspend their brain and go on auto-pilot.
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"when a pack costs two hours work"

I was figuring a net income of about 4.00$ per hour after tax, et.al., is taken out of ones check, but it should read nearly two hours of work, as I was thinking about 6 dollars a pack. You are probably correct though, it would be closer to 1 hour of work because they would also probably buy the cheapest brands. What does a pack cost these days?
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Thanks, you've raised some valid points.

Dale