BULLOCKS - euph/typo/LA pron.?

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:23 AM -0400 5/3/05, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 5:02 AM -0700 5/3/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>"Ballocks" (often spelled "bollocks" these days) is so atypical of
>>general American speech that there is no "LA pronunciation."  Nor I
>>think, would any American be likely to euphemize it with another
>>word ("bullock") that barely exists here.
>>
>>My vote is for "author's bad spelling."
>>
>>JL
>
>It might also be relevant that for ages (and I assume into the
>present) Bullocks is an upscale department store in L.A.
>
>Larry

P.S.  Check out http://www.balconypress.com/html/bullocks.html for a
blurb on a book commemorating the classic Art Deco building that
housed the eponymous flagship store, Bullocks Wilshire.  I see now
that the dept. store chain was named for one of "of the two immigrant
entrepreneurs, John Gillespie Bullock and Percy Glen Winnett, who,
with this magnificent department store, tested a new theory of
retailing in the suburbs, and the architectural team, Parkinson and
Parkinson, who executed that vision into one of Los Angeles' most
beloved landmarks."

Certainly I was far more struck with the name of the store than I
would have been had it been called Winnetts.

L

>>
>>neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: neil
>>Subject: Re: BULLOCKS - euph/typo/LA pron.?
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>on 3/5/05 12:36 pm, neil at neil at TYPOG.CO.UK wrote:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>  Poster: neil
>>>  Subject: BULLOCKS - euph/typo/LA pron.?
>>>
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--> -
>>>
>>>  From the Acknowledgments of 'The Best Awful':
>>>
>>>  'For Tracey and Johnny -- thank you both so ['so' itals] --
>>>bullocks -- much
>>>  for your continued -- tits tits tits -- support. Without the two of you --
>>>  cockring -- these lingering coughs would be more difficult to -- wanker --
>>>  bear.'
>>>
>>>  --Carrie Fisher, 'The Best Awful', 2004 (Pocket Books, London, 2005, XIV)
>>>
>>>  It would seem that euphemism is unlikely, given the context and use of
>>>  swearwords throughout the novel.
>>>
>>>  As for a typo, the only one I found was when reindeers Donner and Blitzen
>>>  were referred to as Donder and Blitzen.
>>>
>>>  So is it LA pronunciation?
>>>
>>>  --Neil Crawford
>>
>>Sorry! Forgot to say I assume BULLOCKS is a variant of BOLLOCKS
>>(testicles/nonsense).
>>
>>--Neil
>>
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