Heard on a "Scrubs" rerun:

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Jul 3 20:47:41 UTC 2007


On 7/3/07, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on a "Scrubs" rerun:
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I remember some of my older relatives saying, "kiss my foot." One of my students recently told me that "Kiss what I twist and I don't mean my wrist" was popular among her friends when she was growing up.
>
>   Margaret


For the lame, lest the point of the above saying be lost, allow me to
point out that "twist" in the relevant sense refers to a manner of
walking that draws attention to and places emphasis upon the sway of a
girl or a woman's hips and the roll of her arse for the purpose of
flirtation. "Did you see  the way that she twisted it to him?!
Da-a-amn!"
Hence, "Kiss what I twist" means "Kiss my ass."

This use of "twist" is *much* older than the dance of the 'Sixties and
there is no connection between the two. When I was in the Army in the
'Sixties, twisting as a dance was definitely a guy thing. It was as
though black-American dancing was a secret to be kept from others.
Hence, the dance was never done with women, who, faute de mieux, would
have been frawlines. Twisting was done as a solo act or in teams. A
black GI using a napkin as a "towel" twisted his way through a
"shower." Another twisted the night away using an imaginary Bolo Bat
(the paddle with the rubber ball attached with a rubber string). A
team, leaving balls and bats to the imagination, twisted its way
through a game of softball.

Yeah, I realize that you had to have been there.

-Wilson

>   Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   "Kiss my grits [grIs]!"
>
> When I was a young'un in Saint Louis, we said:
>
> "Kiss my wrist [rIs]!"
>
> -Wilson
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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