ootsie?

[Anne Curzan]

Here is the full e-mail from Tim Eyman, as quoted in the Seattle Times:

"On to another big topic: I'd like to begin the official "payment to
Permanent Offense" by both initiatives so that my "salary" will begin.

"My goal is from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2000, that Permanent
Offense will distribute to Tim a total of $100,000 over and above expense
reimbursement. Fact is, I'm doing more and more with Permanent Offense and
less with Insignia Corp. [his fraternity watch company] and sales on our
watches showed it in 1999.

"I get ootsie even typing in the number but given the fundraising trajectory
and the potential, it's the salary I want to try for. We can keep the
disbursements steady throughout or start out smaller and spike it after the
signatures are submitted, whatever keeps our reserves adequate to accomplish
our goals.

"do you have thoughts on this? are you uncomfortable with it? or do you
think it's no big deal and don't care? always been a touchy subject with me
but want to make sure that you are OK with this."

Mark A Mandel wrote:

> On Mon, 8 Apr 2002, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>         [Anne Curzan]
> #>>>papers out here, Eyman writes:
> #>>>
> #>>>"I get ootsie even typing in the number but given the fundraising
> #>>>trajectory and the potential, it's the salary I want to try for."
>
>         [Towse]
> #>>"ootsie" in this context probably means "gooey inside."
> #>>"ootsie" is the inside of a Tootsie Roll.
>
>         [Larry Horn]
> #Judging from google, it may have been an innovation of the Tim Eyman,
> #but the "gooey inside a la Tootsie Roll/Pop" interpretation seems the
> #opposite of the contextually plausible meaning here, i.e. 'guilty,
> #uncomfortable'.
>
> Funny, I didn't see that as opposite at all, on the basis of associating
> "gooey" with 'unsteady, squishy, wobbly --> queasy'. You seem to be
> associating it with 'soft and sweet'. That works too, in the abstract.
> Anne, do you have any more of the context to indicate whether the
> writer, Eyman, was invoking positive or negative connotations?
>
> -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and
>    Philological Busybody
>    a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel