Re: Re: ? ? ? keep a cow

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/23/05 8:17:13 PM, stalker at MSU.EDU writes:


> Further thought.  Perhaps the base form is "go fuck yourself."  By
> extension, "go fuck a cow," which I'm sure your dad would never have said or
> even have thought of, so the "go + (do) + absurd action" is a euphemistic
> substitute.  Opens up lots of creative options.  Maybe?
> 
> Jim
> 

What does "base form" mean in this context? If "dad" never would have said 
it, does that mean that he would have thought it? Or is there a historical 
premise here--that people would have first said, "go fuck yourself" and THEN 
thought of things like "Go fly a kite?" Or both?

Neither hypothesis seems plausible to me. In whichb case the notion "base 
form" seems vacuous, having no psychological, social, or historical reality.

In a message dated 4/23/05 8:12:08 PM, stalker at MSU.EDU writes:


> Like Ron, the "go keep a cow" sounded vaguely familiar.  "Go chase 
> yourself"
> sounded as if I had really heard it.  I did a google search on "go chase
> yourself."  You should try it.  There is a Lucille Ball movie with that
> name.  I found a Dutch poem in English which uses the phrase, and a UK site
> that equates it to "go fly a kite," one that I think most of us would more
> likely reccognize, as well a "take a long walk off a short pier," "take a
> flying leap," etc..  An interesting one is "go to grass and eat hay." Maybe
> that's where the cow is useful.
> 
> Jim
> 
One of the more creative insults that I can remember from the 1950s along the 
lilnes off "Take a flying leap" was "Take a flying fuck at a rolling donut." 
This only make sense, I guess, if said to men.
>