"Different strokes for different folks"

[Wilson Gray]

On May 1, 2004, at 11:45 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Different strokes for different folks"
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> Isn't this rhyme a 'hip' variant of the "different drummer" metaphor?
> Aren't the strokes originally drum strokes (presumably with a rather
> natural double- or triple-entendre, at least in the popular-musical
> uses)?
> I don't know whether I've heard/read this derivation somewhere or
> whether
> it just seemed obvious/likely to me when I first encountered the rhyme.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

No. it's not "a 'hip' variant." It's a Black-English equivalent. The
strokes, insofar as there is any double-entendre, are the strokes of a
piston within a cylinder. However, for speakers of Black English, the
reference  to sexual intercourse is so blatant that there is no
double-entendre.

-Wilson Gray