bad hair day

[Bob Haas]

Yes, but only because as Anne noted, it's a three word compound.  The total
sense of the phrase is humorous.  It's hard to separate.

BUT when I do, I think I do find [[bad hair] day] funnier, but only because
I know what bad hair is.  I've got fine hair with a lot of body, and as a
result, it becomes very affected by the weather, etc.  So the concept of bad
hair is funny to me precisely because I used to suffer from it.

But then I cut off my pony tail and got on with life.

> From: Greg Pulliam <pulliam at IIT.EDU>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 00:50:29 -0600
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: bad hair day
>
> To that end, I'm still curious as to whether anyone on this list
> finds [[bad hair] day] as funny as or funnier than [bad [hair day]].