"sucks" revisited

[Laurence Horn]

>My significant other's English nephew (spliced to a Texan lady) and living
>in Austin, Texas, is the drummer for a band who go by the name of The Yuppy
>Pricks. One of their songs, which lasts something like 40 seconds (high
>energy punk thrash, or what) concerns a hummer in a Hummer.
>
>--Neil Crawford

Better that than vice versa, I presume.

LH

>  > From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 10:17:22 -0400
>>  To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Subject: Re: "sucks" revisited
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: "sucks" revisited
>>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
>-
>>
>>  A good point. I suppose that a half-century is plenty of time for a
>>  slang term to die out. Even in my case, "hummer" has never been part
>>  of my active vocabulary. I've heard it and read  it, but I've never
>>  said it.
>>  -Wilson
>>
>>  On 8/7/06, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
>>>  Subject:      Re: "sucks" revisited
>>>
>>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  --
>>>
>>>  From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>>
>>>>  My questions are these:
>>>
>>>>  1) Why does no one, apparently, find "Hummer," connoting, as it does,
>>>>  a particular method of fellatio, the "Hawaiian hum-job" of the
>>>>  mid-Twentieth Century United States, offensive?
>>>
>>>  I don't know if it's a current term, at least in all regions. My first
>>>  introduction to the term was someone telling a story about his parents
>>>  getting shocked laughter when his father, talking about the
>>>  radio-controlled model car he'd just gotten, said "Your mother gave me a
>>>  Hummer for Christmas!"
>>>
>>>  This was right about the same time as i first heard (read: remember
>>>  hearing) Bob Rivers's "Little Hummer Girl", a Christmas parody song
>>>  centered around the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Until i heard the story,
>>>  the song title made no real sense to me--though i got that "hum" was
>>>  being used to mean "perform oral sex on someone", that was figured out
>>>  from context, not knowing the word.
>>>
>>>  Of course, now that i've learned this term, i find the billboards for
>>>  Orlando's Hummer dealership (one of the highest-selling in the nation,
>>>  presumably because of all the mountains here in Florida) advertising H3s
>>>  as Hummers "Now in a smaller size!" more than amusing.
>>>
>>>  <snip>
>>>
>>>  --
>>>  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.
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>>  Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have
>>  found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be
>>  imposed upon them.
>>
>>  Frederick Douglass
>>
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>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
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