Jumper cables

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 26, 2005, at 2:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Jumper cables
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> "Get-Back" here signifieth what?
>
> JL
>

An object - solid, liquid, or gas - whose stench is so disgusting that
it induces in one a strong desire to "get back" far enough from it that
the odor is no longer perceptible.

You know, this kind of construction must be really peculiar to BE.
When, as a teen-ager, I first heard this, I immediately understood it
and I thought that it was one of the funniest expressions that I had
ever heard. In fact, it still makes me laugh, even though it was more
than fifty years ago that I first heard it. Yet, I've found few, if
any, white people who've responded with anything except a version of
"Say/Do what?"

Kummoan nigh! Don' nunna yawl undastan Merkan, I reckon. Muss not kin.

-Wilson

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