rubbernecking again

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

        Many of the citations posted here recently for the word "rubberneck"
show that people have lost sight of the image that made it such a
glorious linguistic creation.  A true rubbernecker has an
inordinately limber neck and is able to swivel the head like an owl
and thus follow an interesting spectacle as it passes from in front
to behind.  Thus tourists on a guided tour, twisting and stretching
to keep an landmark in sight until the tour guide's spiel about it
has ended; or someone turning to watch an attractive rump; or drivers
looking for mangled bodies at a crash site, prudently slowing their
cars while their eyes are diverted, are all showing a rubberneck.
People who are mearly looking intently, perhaps impolitely, at
something, but without undue physical contortion, are gawking, not
rubbernecking.

GAT