Heard on The Judges: "bum-rush"

Wed Aug 13 14:22:23 UTC 2008

At 9:29 AM -0400 8/13/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Pretty girls? Now, that's something that I _should_ have remembered!
>;-) In fact, I do recall when the guy who ran my neighborhood bar in
>L.A. hired a bikini-babe, back in the '60's. Then, there was the bar
>_not_ in my neighborhood - I had to take the freeway down to get there
>- that had a female bartender - called a "barmaid," in those barbaric
>times - and a wait-staff, consisting of a single woman, who both wore
>only g-strings. Well worth the trip! Well, it was, in those
>more-puritanical days, at least.
>
>More-or-less back on topic, I've noticed that, here of late, people
>are using _g-string_ to mean "thong." They're *not* the same thing!

Indeed, which is why you can never find a decent recording of Bach's
"Air on the Thong".

LH

>Well, there's no point in getting upset. Think of how poor Beowulf
>would feel, were he to be confronted with today's English!
>
>-Wilson
>
>On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:20 AM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  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"
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  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:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  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:
>>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  > 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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>>>  >>
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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.
>>>  -----
>>>  -Mark Twain
>>>
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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.
>-----
>-Mark Twain
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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