that sucks

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:19 AM -0400 3/28/08, Dennis Preston wrote:
>That's what I was trying to say, and I suspect the timing is very
>similar, maybe early 60's for me.
>
>dInIs

...and if anyone was wondering whether 
ambiguity-based puns in this domain were passé, 
here's a subhead* in today's Yale Daily News 
touting a review of "The Bank Job", which appears 
from the review to be a movie "based on a true 
story" featuring a British 
bank-robbery-caper-cum-soft-core-porn-sexcapades:

Film
There are real jobs, and
then there are blow jobs.
Both suck, but does "The
Bank Job"? Ask Brian
Thompson. Page B6.

LH

*Did we ever figure out what those are called, 
those brief mentions on the front page of a 
newspaper section announcing and promoting a 
particular article/column on an inside page? 
It's not exactly a subhead, but what is it?

>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: that sucks
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>"THERE IS NO GRAVITY--THE UNIVERSE SUCKS" is the way that I first saw
>>it, as a graffito in pencil on the outside wall of the mess hall at
>>Fort Devens, MA, in November of 1959. I took it as a pun based on
>>"suck" = perform fellatio. That is, gravity can be conceived of
>>literally as a form of sucking, but "sucking" brings to mind
>>"performing fellatio" and gravity *can't* be conceived of literally as
>>a form of sucking in *that* sense and, if you *try* to conceive of it
>>that way, you have to laugh.
>>
>>You know, the *only* other place that I've ever come across this is in
>>any form is here in ADS-L discussions.
>>
>>Weird.
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 8:07 PM, Laurence Horn 
>><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>   Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>   Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>   Subject:      Re: that sucks
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>   At 7:55 PM -0400 3/27/08, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>>   >I'm not sure what it is that Dennis is remembering here from his
>>>adolescence;
>>>   >"X sucks" = 'X stinks' was not in use in the 50s, and not widely
>>>used until
>>>   >the late 60s and early 70s. Sounds like post facto codger
>>>   >etymoloogizing to me!
>>>   >
>>>   >If my memory is correct, people did sometimes say things like, "Does she
>>>   >suck?" meaning "Will she fellate one?"--but it was used only for people.
>>>   >
>>>   >I am about the same age as Dennis, and like him I remember being
>>>confused in
>>>   >the late 1960s at something someone had written on a bathroom wall: "The
>>>   >Universe sucks."
>>>
>>>   Wasn't the full quote
>>>
>>>   THERE IS NO GRAVITY--THE UNIVERSE SUCKS
>>>
>>>   or "THE EARTH SUCKS", depending on your theory?
>>>
>>>   LH
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   >But not merely because I could not imagine the universe fellating
>>>   >someone--this use of 'sucks' simply did not compute with ANY of
>>>my known uses
>>>   >of "suck" ("suck up to," "suck the gravied finger," "suck eggs,"
>>>etc.)--except
>>>   >that they all were pejorative. There was no 
>>>reason for me to focus on oral
>>>   >sex (and I think I have as dirty a mind as Dennis!).
>>>   >
>>>   >
>>>   >In a message dated 3/27/08 6:39:47 PM, preston at MSU.EDU writes:
>>>   >
>>>   >
>>>   >>  Us 50's kids (well, teenagers) knew exactly what sexual act was
>>>   >>  referred to; the first time we saw "The earth sucks," we didn't know
>>>   >>  quite what to make of it.
>>>   >>
>>>   >>  dInIs
>>>   >>
>>>   >
>>>   >
>>>   >
>>>   >
>>>   >**************
>>>   >Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL
>>>   >Home.
>>>   >
>>>(http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&
>>>   >ncid=aolhom00030000000001)
>>>   >
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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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>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
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