[Ads-l] Hager-ma growley

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Apr 8 18:54:42 UTC 2015


On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:28 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> To "euchre" is to victimize by trickery.
>
> "That's what's the matter with the mule."
>

Doesn't "euchre" still mean that?

I'm reminded of

"What's the matter with the mill? The mill won't grind."

Approx., My gender-life has dwindled to nothing because my woman - the
"mill" - is unexpectedly and unusually rejecting my advances.

There's a blues on this topic by Muddy Waters, unfortunately mistitled by
the producer - presumably not only white but also Northern and uninvolved
beyond the money - as

"What's the Matter With the _Meal_?"

even though that means that the explanatory complaint,

"The *meal* won't grind"

explains nothing, even if "grind"is understood as being in the middle voice.

-- 
- 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.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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