Excerpt from a baker's dozen david matherne 1 i ain't no valedictorian. i'll give you that. but i'm certainly not the loser my step-father johnnie likes to think i am, either. mr. oh-so-famous local johnnie pipehead of "johnnie on the spot plumbing." (real clever name, huh? ) just because he only took the requisite twelve years to make it through school and graduate from his alma mater, and i took slightly longer, that doesn't make me a loser. so what if i took "the road less traveled by" and added a one-year, scenic detour to my journey-- to algebra, physical science, and . did i mention chemistry? let's just say i liked latin but latin didn't much care for me. just because i took thirteen years in all to get out of melancholy high with a diploma doesn't make me some loser. being nothing at all, now that would make me a loser. the dialect used by the speaker in this passage indicates that he is