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Miss Poubelle has only visited Key West once, but it seemed to her that she had reached a paradise on earth. Of course, the fact that she was leaving the frozen Northeast in January probably added to her impression of having arrived in the promised land. After weeks of trudging through the snow, bundled up like a lumberjack, she suddenly found herself wearing shorts, sunbathing in the nude, drinking frozen cocktails, and interacting with the lively gay and lesbian culture of the island.

There is a nearly constant parade of gay men, both natives and tourists, wandering up and down Duval Street, visiting the many bars, shops, and restaurants. The dirt is dished over brunches and cocktails all over the island, and those who think they are "it" are loudly reminded that they are not. One of the stalwarts of Duval is a bar called La Te Da, and over her second margarita Miss Poubelle found herself wondering about the origins of its name.

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The Oxford English Dictionary, after some searching, turned up ladida. They define this noun or adjective as "a derisive word for someone who affects gentility, a 'swell'." An early instance of the word used as a noun is seen in this 1893 quote "That French brother of his, the Parisian la-de-da." It is used as adjective in this 1895 quote "I may tell you that we are all homely girls. We don't want any la-di-da members." A ladida, apparently, is someone who affects to be what he or she is not, and ladida behavior is that which strives to be thought of as particularly elegant and high-class.

A closely related word is lardy-dardy, defined as "characteristic of an affected swell; languidly foppish". An 1861 example uses the word as follows: "You're not much good, my friend, says I, with your lardy-dardy ways and your cold-blooded words, whoever you are." Miss Poubelle asks her North American readers to try pronouncing lardy-dardy with an English accent, where r's disappear after vowels, and she believes that they will find it to be nearly identical to ladida, with an extra "dee" syllable at the end.

The OED suggests that both of these words arise from an imitation of the sort of way that affected people talk. Although not specifically stated there, it seems that ladida is supposed to be a hesitation word that people of a certain social class use. A hesitation word or phrase is like, "um, y'know," something that you say to fill in conversational space while thinking of the next thing to say. And those aspiring to be thought of as high-class at one time apparently larded their speech with lardy-dardies.

Miss Poubelle looked about on the Internet for people using ladida, and many of the cases do still fall into the category of "conversational fillers," where the writer is searching around for the next thing to say. People typically write things like "It's a beautiful day... ladidah... well I guess I should get back to work" For the American writers who used the word on web pages, it occurred nearly exclusively as an interjection, and wasn't used at all as a noun or adjective. Yet even among these writers, there was often some sense that ladida was being used somewhat jokingly, as if the writers were being playfully snobbish with such a recondite phrase.

Miss Poubelle was not able to ask the owners why they named their bar La Te Da. But the gay sensibility has always been amused by the image of a social climbing society lady or an A-list queen trying a little too hard to be ever so elegant. Our culture is particularly adept at pointing a rude finger at those who think they've risen above the rest of us. Thank goodness that when nelly queens sometimes get a bit ladida, there are always plenty of others to pull them back to earth. Or in the case of Key West, back to paradise.