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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=703350523-23022005></SPAN>W<SPAN
class=703350523-23022005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>hat does the
expression "God bless his cotton-picking soul"</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=703350523-23022005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>mean</FONT> <FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=3>which I heard in the States?</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=703350523-23022005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=703350523-23022005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Fritz Goerling</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><TT>I'm not sure that I see the point about "cotton-picking"
being<BR>racist. While, at least in the US, the people who picked
cotton<BR>were for a long time black slaves, as I understand it the
phrase<BR>has nothing to do with who did the work, it has to do with
the<BR>nature of the work. "cotton-picking" means "unpleasant and
tediously<BR>detailed" because (I am told - as a northerner I have no
experience<BR>of picking cotton) picking cotton involves pulling off each
individual<BR>tuft of cotton (you can't just knock them off as you can many
kinds<BR>of berries) and so is quite tedious and leads to repetitive
motion<BR>injuries. I have the vague memory that there is also
something<BR>scratchy on cotton plants.<BR>--<BR>Bill Poser, Linguistics,
University of Pennsylvania<BR><A
href="http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/">http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/</A>
billposer@alum.mit.edu<BR></TT><BR>
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