Heard on "Today on NBC"

[Jonathan Lighter]

To "Recall Correctly." IIRC.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Heard on "Today on NBC"
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What does it mean "to RC"?

-Wilson

On Nov 29, 2007 10:29 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Heard on "Today on NBC"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> IIRC, to _lay dead_ has long had an AAVE sense of "to lie low." I associate it with the '60s or early '70s. If it isn't in HDAS, it's because I didn't think it was slangy enough.
>
> Or else because I don't RC.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Heard on "Today on NBC"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Matt is questioning Magic Johnson on the amount of medicine that the
> latter takes daily to control his HIV. Magic answers that he now takes
> only two medicines a day "because the virus is _layin' dead_ in [his]
> body."
>
> Clearly, Magic means that the virus is _lying dormant_ in his body.
> However, this caught my attention because, in the 'Forties and
> 'Fifties in Saint Louis, we used "lay dead" to mean, "laze around the
> house doing nothing in particular."
>
> It may be a bit macabre, but I gotta tell y'all, the mental picture of
> HIV just lazin' around in Magic's bod doin' nothin' in p'ticluh cracks
> me up.
>
> -Wilson
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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