a chicken, a drag and 96

[John McChesney-Young]

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote in the middle of a
fascinating posting:

>In 1969 (of course) I saw a book in which mutual oral-genital sex (in this
>case, between women) was referred to not as "sixty-nine" but by the
>French term
>"soixante-neuf".  Is the French term widely used in English?  (Perhaps among
>lesbians?)  Or (my suspicion) was the author trying to add a high-brow tone to
>what was really a piece of pornography?

I remember reading the French phrase in Harlan Ellison's collection
of essays in television criticism _The Glass Teat_ (1970), with an
implication in the context of heterosexual activity. A man was
certainly involved, and I don't recall any hint of homosexuality in
the passage; if the memory of my libidinous teenage reading is
correct the context was a description of an interview with a champion
skier in which the interviewer stressed in a fashion interpreted by
HE as lewd the skier's practice of sticking his tongue out while
going down the slopes in competition. I believe the skier was
European - Swiss? French? it *has* been over 30 years! - and his
nationality may have been a factor is HE's choice of vocabulary.

It's an appallingly small sample to go by and my example may be
tainted by a French connection, but perhaps the phrase picked up in
popularity at that time?

John
--


*** John McChesney-Young  **  panis at pacbell.net  **   Berkeley,
California, U.S.A.  ***