For Better or for Worse

[Jonathan Lighter]

All these conjectures attest to the ingenuity of our correspondents, but then look what I did with "Use at your own risk."

If the terms are real, all (except I suppose for the suggested nuance of "been there") are so recent and/or local that it would make hbetter sense to watch out for earlier attestations.  "Gig," by the way, has become so vague and general in recentryears (= "thing") that the lone entry in UrbanDictionary may even be coincidental.

BTW, for twenty-two years a friend of mine has applied "user-friendly" to amatively cooperative Vagino-Americans. Is he alone in this?

BTW, "Vagino-American" came from "The National Lampoon" ca1977 and I've been waiting since then for a chance to use it.  Apologies to all.

JL

David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: David Bowie
Subject: Re: For Better or for Worse
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Dave Wilton
:somebody else wrote:

:: The wording seems a little odd. "Hands on" suggests, to
:: me, something short of intercourse, while "been there" presumably
:: means that the 14-year-old has lost her virginity and "gig"
:: sounds like she's sexually active. "Roadside" is, to me, opaque,
:: or at least would be out of context.

: In this context, I read "roadside" to be a reference to a
: streetwalker.

As for me, i read it as a reference to sex in a parked car.

(And "hands on" didn't seem short of intercourse to me--but that may have
been from the later "been there".)

David Bowie http://pmpkn.net/lx
Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.


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