Middling-class Grosse Pointers whose social status has declined CONSIDERABLY the past two decades or so on account of regional economic decline, a burgeoning newly affluent group of parvenus, and their own personal financial misfortunes. While never as wealthy nor distinguished as some of their blue-blood, mansion-owning neighbors, this group once enjoyed a reasonable level of material comfort and local prominence back in the pre-cable TV, pre-PC, pre-internet, pre-cell phone age (nee' Cold War era) and tended to predominate in those avenues of community life usually considered "common": little league baseball, brownies and cub scouts, city and municipal gov't, ice cream socials, PTA, et al. Alas, since the Reagan presidency, this sub-culture, like the plight of most middle class Americans everywhere, has slowly dissolved away to the newer and more affluent types with their store-bought designer clothes, McMansions, strange accents, and even more questionable occupations in some cases. This has forced some GPers, as a means of survival, to choose either "trading up" - at the risk of being referred to derisively as "bourgoise", "new money", or "traitors to their former class" or a decidedly LESS inviting move "down market" at the further risk of being declared "declasse'." Those who try to stay as they are (somehow defying social gravity by hanging on by their fingernails), do so at the risk of acquiring the ambiguous and rather demeaning moniker "towney." People residing in this new-found purgatory give themselves away unintentionally but unmistakably: deferred maintenance and repairs on homes, older and/or used cars, worn and out-dated furniture, fewer social events, little or no holiday celebrations, et al. "Towney" in this context means precisely what it implies: residents of a notable town or prominent enclave who themselves possess neither the stature, influential ties, nor net worth of its more pedigreed citizenry and often find themselves "jobbed out" by such gentry, or scrounging for other meager income opportunities in order to make ends meet. This phenomenon, while specific to the above mentioned locale, is more than likely occurring in any number of formerly respectable pre-World War I communities across the United States.
The film adaptation of the novel "House Of Sand And Fog", while depicting an old Iranian family in social and economic decline (and their rather desperate attempts to camoflage said occurrence) could easily be transposed to reflect what a great many current (and former) Grosse Pointers are going through in light of changing times. Never with a bonafide pedigree and a sudden lower status, they become, in effect, Grosse Pointe Towneys. Oh, how the mighty have fallen !
by Thorstein Veblen April 21, 2008
Get the grosse pointe towney mug.Although this looks like a last name it is used as a first name to call men that are athletic, funny, stunnigly good looking, and intelligent.
Person 1 " hey tonnemacher. hows it going?"
tonnemacher "good"
Person 2 "what is tonnemacher?"
Person 1 "someone that is hot and cool at the same time."
tonnemacher "good"
Person 2 "what is tonnemacher?"
Person 1 "someone that is hot and cool at the same time."
by Call it like it is January 26, 2009
Get the tonnemacher mug.A poor excuse to get out of doing something that thus person is too shy, lazy, or unsociable to do. Named after the infamous Daniel Toone (1991 AD).
Or pulling a member of society called Toone by the hair, either on head or pubic region.
Or pulling a member of society called Toone by the hair, either on head or pubic region.
Pulling a Tooney - "I can't come out, I have jetlag."
"I had to sign out, I thought I was ill but it turns out I was just hungry"
E.G Tooney is one lazy bastard, thus the term Pulling a Tooney to get out of something.
"I had to sign out, I thought I was ill but it turns out I was just hungry"
E.G Tooney is one lazy bastard, thus the term Pulling a Tooney to get out of something.
by chubbyfunster March 29, 2010
Get the Pulling a Tooney mug.Someone who appears totally normal until they go in for a kiss. Then their mouth becomes strange and down-turned, their chin becomes wrinkly and their puckered lips don't quite touch but instead just awkwardly expose their teeth.
karen: How was your date with Chevaps last night?
Lindsay: Oh man, it was good until he went in for a kiss and turned all Toney Pompano on me.
Karen: OOOOOOHHHHH DEAAAAAARRRRR... let's get you to sanitation services immediately.
Lindsay: Oh man, it was good until he went in for a kiss and turned all Toney Pompano on me.
Karen: OOOOOOHHHHH DEAAAAAARRRRR... let's get you to sanitation services immediately.
by Thatsawrapsatbalkenchevaps June 21, 2009
Get the Toney Pompano mug.Selling out at the last minute
by Tenney April 29, 2022
Get the Tenney mug.I had a tonnesen last night
by Florentino#69 Folkeparken September 6, 2016
Get the Tonnesen mug.The act of placing sarran wrap on someones face or chest and then deficating upon it so as to get the transfer of heat, with none of the mess.
Man: Would you like a cleveland steamer?
Woman: No thanks, it's too messy.
Man: How aboot the Tonneau Cover?
Woman: Yes, Thank You. I would enjoy that very much!
Woman: No thanks, it's too messy.
Man: How aboot the Tonneau Cover?
Woman: Yes, Thank You. I would enjoy that very much!
by Angry Pirate45 June 7, 2009
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