B-girl [was D-girl]

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:21 AM -0400 4/22/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>
>"Beading oil" is found on the Web in a US Government document, where it
>clearly refers to an adulterant in whiskey. I can't find it in any
>dictionary, however. (Of course, we hoi polloi don't have access to the
>online OED.) I suppose the original "B" drink may have been colored with
>this substance, whatever it may be. Can anyone enlighten me?
>
Well, the closest I could get from the online OED is "beading", sense
4 (no cites):

4. A preparation for causing liquor to hang in drops about the glass
or bottle when poured out.

I can't begin to guess how this sense, if this is what beading oil is
derived from, relates to what the B-girls were drinking, i.e. ginger
ale or tea or whatever masquerading as booze.  Could it be (I begin
to guess) that if you put beading oil in the ginger ale or whatever,
it pours more like booze and thereby helps the B-girl and her
establishment fool the mark?  And why, incidentally, would there a
market in the first place (independent of and prior to the
exploitation of the substance by the B-girl trade) for 'a preparation
for causing liquor to hang in drops about the glass or bottle when
poured out'?  Aesthetics?

Ah, Peter Tamony, thou shouldst be living at this hour!

larry