nice joints

[Jonathan Lighter]

I was already familiar with the expression when I heard it uttered by an actual down-on-his-luck drunk as he was being ejected from a New York City bar in the early 1970s. I'm not sure whether he said "joints" or "places."

JL

George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: George Thompson
Subject: nice joints
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At the race track the other day, investing in losers, I was sitting a
few rows in front of a couple of vacationing priests, one of whom did
considerable loud yakking on his cellphone. At one point he said "I've
been thrown out of nicer joints than that. . . ."

Ths is an expression that I have known and used, when appropriate,
since the early 60s, even though I have never attended a seminary. My
usual formulation is "better places". Once I earned the admiration of
my friends by getting thrown out of the Two Gentlemen bar in Allston,
Mass., a feat thought by many to have been impossible. But I had help
on that occasion.

Sorry for the outburst of sentimental memories. I posted this to ask
the geographic spread and historical depth of this expression.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.


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