Nonsexual lickety-split

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, Philip Roth.  Geezerly folk may recall the day when Vice-President Agnew warned the nation that college students were "now going back to school with their _pot_ and _Portnoy_."
[Emphasis Agnew's.]

I doubt if this was the speech that introduced "nattering nabobs of negativism" and / or
"the radical-liberals."

Today I see the crowds of young collegians returning with their vials of X and heavy subscriptions to Napster's rap catalogue.

Cultural devolution. You can't beat it.

JL

neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK> wrote:
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Subject: Re: Nonsexual lickety-split
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Uncommon, maybe; jocular, certainly.

Nathan Zuckermann, the protagonist of Philip Roth's 'The Anatomy Lesson',
pretends he is the publisher of a pornographic magazine titled 'Lickety
Split' [though with that title one would expect the cited cover to feature
cunnilingus]:

"I can tell people a thousand times that I'm a serious person, but it's hard
for them to take at face value when the prosecution holds up 'Lickety Split'
and on the cover is a white girl sucking a big black cock and simultaneously
fucking broom."
- Philip Roth, 'the Anatomy lesson', Jonathan Cape, London, 1984

A variant spelling occurs in another 1980s novel:

'She grasped his penis. he gripped her swelling backside. he forgot her
past, forgot deviousness, and said, "You mentioned something about
pickle-sucking." -- "So I did. You didn't mention anything about
lickity-splitting."'
- Herbert Kastle, 'Dirty Movies', Granada, London, 1980, 211

--Neil Crawford


on 9/8/05 5:53 PM, Jonathan Lighter at wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM wrote:

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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Nonsexual lickety-split
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>
> As an actual lexical item, sexual "lickety-split" is uncommon and, I'd wager,
> almost entirely jocular. But it is obvious that a great many people
> (particularly of the young male variety) find the word itself hilarious
> because it can be "interpreted" as sexual.
>
> Earlier I mentioned Beavis and Butthead types in this regard. The "Beavis and
> Butthead" phenomenon has not been studied by linguists, as far as I know.
> Example:
>
> 1. _Maiden Aunt_ (oh, all right, _*Spinster* Aunt_) : And he was gone,
> lickety-split !
>
> _B or B_ : Huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh. She said : "Lickety-split."
>
> The "B & B phenomenon" thus refers to the amused identification, aloud or
> silently, of unintended scatology in the words of others.
>
> Here are two more exx. :
>
> 2. _Ph.D_ : Cortes was far less interested in establishing Spanish dominion
> over Mexico than he was in acquiring gold and booty from the Aztecs.
>
> _Large Lecture Hall of Undergraduates_ [_think_ ] : Huh huh huh huh huh huh
> huh huh. He said: "Booty."
>
> 3. _Philosopher_ : Politics makes strange bed fellows.
>
> _Foolosopher_ : Huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh. You said : "Bed Fellows."
>
>
> JL
>
>
>
> David Bowie wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: David Bowie
> Subject: Nonsexual lickety-split
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>
> I haven't really been following the discussion of lickety-split and its
> apparent avoidance by the mayor of New Orleans, due possibly to its
> sexual meaning (which i hadn't previously been aware of at all), but i
> just saw a non-sexual use of the term by another politician, as quoted
> in the Washington _Post_:
>
> Part of the inquiry will be allegations of price gouging, usually
> a staple of the Democratic Party, but one the Republicans must
> take up "in lickety-split time," said Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.).
> "Our constituents demand it."
>
> From an article titled "GOP agenda in Congress may be at risk:
> Katrina's costs, high fuel prices working against more tax cuts",
> appearing on page A2 of the _Post_'s Sunday, 4 September edition,
> available online at
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR200509030106
> 5_pf.html
>
> It makes me wonder exactly how widespread the sexual meaning is.
>
> --
> 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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