Jumper cables

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Get-Back" here signifieth what?

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Jumper cables
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I have a few:

"Uglier than sheep shit in shallow water"

"Uglier than Sammy Davis, Jr. eating Chinese mustard"

"Funkier than ten gallons of Get-Back"

-Wilson

On Jun 26, 2005, at 11:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Jumper cables
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> At NYU in 1970 I heard "Busier than a cat covering shit on a cement
> highway." My interlocutor had learned it from his father.
>
> "He was quiet as a wooden-legged man on a tin roof and busy as a
> one-armed paperhanger with the hives" appears on p. 64 of Carl
> Sandburg's _The People, Yes_ (1936).
>
> "Busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kickin' (contest)" shows up in
> several WWII novels published in the '50s.
>
> JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: Jumper cables
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>
> Jim Landau:
>> I heard an interesting ethnic slur(?) today: "I was as busy as jumper
>> cables at a Puerto Rican wedding".
>
> Sam Clements:
>> I first heard a variant in about 1979 as "jumper cables at a Mexican
>> Wedding." Heard in California. From a Texan.
>
> The "Canonical List Of Language Humor" maintained by the rec.humor
> newsgroup in the mid-'90s included these similes:
>
> -----
> Busier than a cat covering shit on a hot tin roof.
> Busier than a centipede at a toe countin' contest.
> Busier than a one-armed taxi driver with crabs.
> Busier than a one-eyed cat watching nine mouseholes.
> Busier than a set of jumper cables at a Mexican wedding.
> Busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
> Busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger with the crabs.
> Busy as a one-legged cat trying to bury shit on a frozen pond.
> -----
>
> I'm sure Rey "Maledicta" Aman has many more in his files.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
>
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