Bad Hair Day

[Lynne Murphy]

Bob Haas said:
>
> I don't know about that, Lynne.  Why can't it be a day where one is simply
> having "bad hair."  And I have heard friends--no doubt pleased with the way
> the look on the way to class, or to a fete--state proudly, and with a little
> irony, that they were having a good hair day.
>
> Perhaps if there's room for consternation here, it's because all the
> elements seem to me to be restrictive in the particular phrase.  No one has
> a "hair day."  One's hair might be good or bad on a particular day, but if
> so, then one adds that it is a good or a bad hair day.

Well, my main point was to take issue (though I'm not sure I did it well) with
the supposition that the phrase has any close relation to the African American
notion of 'bad hair' vs. 'good hair'...  BUt I still feel strongly that the
compound stress indicates that it's a (bad) (hair day).  The evidence that
we don't have 'hair days' doesn't convince me because we also don't 'have days'.
You can 'have a nice day', but 'have a day' is only jocularly used.  If the test
for whether constituent is being modified is to see whether the modification can
be removed, then 'day' itself fails.

I don't feel like I'm making my point well, but I hope I'm making my point...
To give another analogy... I happen to categorize all days except Sunday in
terms of whether it was a "good mail day" or a "bad mail day".  (I seriously do--
I have witnesses!)  A bad mail day is when I get no mail.  A good mail day is when
I get lots of mail.  The mail itself is not good or bad (since sometimes it's non-
existent)...it's either a good day for mail (when I get some) or a bad day for mail
(when I don't).  In the same way, I think "bad hair day" is a bad day for hair,
rather than a day of bad hair.

Lynne