“…but we can get a lava-lamp anywhere….” Overheard in a gift shop somewhere in California on our recent vacation…. presumably part of a conversation wherein two people where trying to figure out what to buy, and one had suggested a lava lamp, and another person was countering that they should get something else, because lava-lamps were to be found on every corner.
“Did you not want no ice?” Said to me by a waitress not long after our return to Ohio. My reply was not much better, “Yes, no ice please.”
Logically (and by “logically” I mean “if we set aside the atrocious grammar for a moment), “not want no ice” would be equivalent to “does want some ice” which I did not want, so technically I should have said, “No” as in “No, I don’t want no ice” which would have been a triple negative. However, I knew the question was really asking if I wanted a beverage devoid of ice, which was true, so the context-appropriate answer was “Yes” however I did clarify that I wanted “no ice”
Before anyone starts busting on Southern Ohio grammar, let me just say that I’d rather hear “don’t want no ice” than live somewhere where lava-lamps are commonplace, but that’s just me.