Heard on tonight's Without a Trace

[Wilson Gray]

Well, clearly, _jumping all over_ is not the *same* as _jump on_. Can
"He _jumped all over her_ mean "He struck her" or "He punched her" or
"He beat her up"? I think not.

Back in the day, a whore said to me:

"Tommy (her pimp; in those days, pimps didn't use fancy names like
"Pimping Kyle" or "White Chocolate") _jumped on_ me yesterday."

When I asked her what he had done, she answered:

"He whipped me with a [wire] coathanger."

As coincidence would have it, when I was eleven, my mother whipped me
with a wire coathanger for lying to her about whether I'd been
smoking. We happened to be standing in front of a closet. She reached
in, grabbed a coathanger, and whaled a
while. (That's a pun, son. "Whale a while" is BE slang for "do
something really, really well.") I didn't enjoy it.

-Wilson

-Wilson-Wilson

On 2/29/08, LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
>  Subject:      Re: Heard on tonight's Without a Trace
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  I don't think that's particularly Southern or black, as I've heard that a
>  lot from all kinds of people, and probably have used it myself.  I take it
>  as standard non-formal English.  I hear it more often as _jumping all over_
>  me, though.
>
>  On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>  > -----------------------
>  > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>  > Subject:      Heard on tonight's Without a Trace
>  >
>  > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  >
>  > The show is set in New York City.
>  >
>  > Ex-con white mother to shoplifting son:
>  >
>  > "What are you *doing*?! Are you *crazy*?!"
>  >
>  > Son replies:
>  >
>  > "What are you _jumping on_ *me* for?! *You* did it [broke the law], too!"
>  >
>  > Of course, the *writer* could be Southern or black.
>  >
>  > -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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>
>
>
>  --
>  Randy Alexander
>  Jilin City, China
>
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>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org