Heard on The Judges: "bum-rush"

[Marc Velasco]

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure how many times I've heard it 'in real
life.'  I'm fairly confident it's been more than a few, but given the number
of violent attacks I've seen IRL versus the violence to be found in
books/movies, I'm guessing my experience has also been more rooted in the
latter.

That and I've seldom seen bartenders actually escort unruly patrons out of
bars; maybe it's the times, maybe it's the location, but most establishments
have positioned pretty girls behind the bar, more for attracting customers,
than for keeping order.



On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 1:36 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: "bum-rush"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As somebody - a cartoon character? - used to say: "It's possa-bull."
> Seriously speaking, I have no doubt that what you say is true, given
> that you write from your personal experience, as I was writing from
> mine: this was the first time that I'd ever heard the term used in
> real life in any meaning whatsoever. In books and movies of my
> experience from fifty years ago, barkeepers "gave the bum's rush to"
> or "bum-rushed" unruly patrons by shoving or otherwise physically
> forcing them out of the bar and onto the sidewalk.
>
> You can see why hearing "bum-rush" used of _dogs_ in the public way
> attacking other _dogs_ in the public way would have engaged my
> attention.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com>
> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: "bum-rush"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > IME, bum-rush is being used as I've always heard it, as some sort of
> quick,
> > not-usually-too-fair assault.  sometimes by ambush, or blindside.  at
> least
> > that's the connotations usually surrounding it IME.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Heard on The Judges: "bum-rush"
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Spoken by presumably European-American, standard-speaking, voice-over
> guy:
> >>
> >> "The plaintiff complains that the defendants' nine dogs _bum-rushed_
> >> his two dogs."
> >>
> >>
> >> I.e., one group of dogs _attacked_ another group.
> >>
> >> However, IMO, to _bum-rush_ is to _frog-walk or otherwise throw an
> >> undesirable patron out of a joint_ and not to attack him, whether as
> >> an individual or in a group. Of course, since "bum-rush" and
> >> "frog-walk" are both only literary terms for me, I could very well be
> >> completely mistaken, here.
> >>
> >> FWIW, I've never even heard of such a thing as requiring, or even
> >> merely asking, a patron to leave a bar, in real life. In Jim-Crow
> >> days, naturally, I sometimes experienced being refused entrance to a
> >> watering-place, from the be-ginning. A Japanese-American friend told
> >> me of being refused entrance to bars in Oklahoma, when he was a
> >> cannon-cocker at Fort Sill, on the grounds that he was a Native
> >> American. Since he was always subsequently admitted, after
> >> demonstrating that he was neither an Indian nor black, he - and I -
> >> thought that some white Oklahomans really did think that he was an
> >> Indian. (For me, that story nailed the ceiling to the roof, WRT the
> >> theory that the progenitors of Native Americans emigrated from Asia.)
> >>
> >> -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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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> 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.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
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