Cloud nine; Take your seats

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Sat Feb 12 13:30:06 UTC 2000


CLOUD NINE

     The RHHDAS has:

1935--cloud eight
1954--cloud seven
1956--cloud thirty-nine
1956--cloud seven
1957--cloud nine

     PLAYBOY, July 1957, pg. 35, Miss July/Playmate of the Month, features a
stewardess (now "flight attendant").  The title is: "CLOUD NINE, we find a
brown-eyed beauty in the wild blue yonder."

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TAKE YOUR SEATS

     This story really kicks ass!  From PLAYBOY, August 1957, pg. 59:

_TAKE YOUR SEATS_
_there's a divinity that shapes our ends, nickname them how we will_
_humor BY RAY RUSSELL_

     Fanny (...) derriere (...) Discounting _derriere_ which is French,
_tochus_ which is Yiddish and _gluteus maximus_ which is Latin, how many are
there, really?  Nates is virtually obsolete.  Buttocks is, uh, clinical.
Much too clinical.  Would you prefer butt?
     She shook her head.
     "Can?"
     She made a face.
     "Prat?  Backside?" (...)
     (col. 2--ed.)  "How about rump?" (...)
     "What about duff?" (...)
     "Aren't we forgetting behind?  And just plain hind?  And hinder and
hind-end?"
     "And rear and rear-end?" chimed in Number Two.
     "And south-end?" (...)
     "Seat.  She says sitter, too."
     Number One mumbled.  "There's always bottom." (...)
     "Some people say cheeks," she said.
     "And some people," quickly added Number Two, "say buns."
     "_Buns_!  Never heard of it!  Back to your desks!  Fanny was good enough
for the author and it will jolly well be good enough for us!" (...)
     "Hindquarters?"  (...)
     (col. 3--ed.) "Hips?" asked the other one.
     "_That_," I shouted, "is a cowardly euphemism used only by nurses and
doctors with hypodermic needles in their hands!  Out!  Both of you, out!"
     That evening, at dinner, I stared glassily into my Martini and said
rather loudly, "Tail."  (...)
     "...tailbone..."  (...)
     "Posterior."  (...)
     "Arse," I said.  Then I said "Fundament." (....)
     "It's keester." (...)

     From PLAYBOY, letters, December 1957, pg. 8, col. 2:

     (Letter #3--ed.)  ...Russell bypassed perhaps only _bustle_ in his
thesauric research into synonyms and euphemisms for the "le-fess" (Fr.).
(...)  Three cheers for the cheeks, cake!
     (Letter #6--ed.)  In these parts, we say _hootenanny_.  Bill Chadwick,
Atlanta, Georgia.
     (Letter #7--ed.)  Russell forgot _rumble seat_.  Ida Swanson,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
     (Letter #8--ed.)  ..._Landing gear_...  Capt. Henry Greenberg, USAF,
Denver, Colorado



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