Heard on The Judges

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 1:42 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Heard on The Judges
>

>
> Judge Greg [addressing the female defendant in a subsequent case]:
> "I'm glad to hear that[: that you always dress yourself
> properly]. You not ghetto-fabulous. Some people come in here
> _laid to the bone_, wearing every Gucci and Louie there is."
>
> "_Laid to the bone_" has been used in BE for "*extremely*
> well-dressed" at least since I was but a tad, ca. the
> 'Forties. Simple "laid" means "well-dressed."
>
> Not in UD in any meaning, except for "laid" in the usual
> sexual meaning. In Google, "laid (to the bone)" as "(very)
> drunk" or as undefined - but obviously meaning
> "well-dressed," in context - in a quote from Airplane 2.

>From _Airplane 2_ (as found on IMDB.com)
Clerk: Do you swear on the Constitution of the United States to tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Witness: Ain't no thing.
[he slaps the clerk's book and the clerk uses his book to slap the
witnesses hand as if "giving fives" to each other]
Defense Attorney: [approaches the witness as he sits down in the witness
stand] Would you describe, in your own words, what happened that night?
Witness: Check it, bleed. Bro... was ON! Didn't trip. But the folks was
freakin', Man. Hey, and the pilots were laid to the bone, Homes.
[the stenographer wears sunglasses and sways back and forth as he types]

Witness: So Blood hammered out and jammed jet ship. Tightened that bad
sucker inside the runway like a mother. Shit.

>From Airplane (the first one), also from IMDB.com.  Note that "layin' me
to da' BONE" seems to mean "causing me great pain" here.

Randy: Can I get you something?
Second Jive Dude: 'S'mofo butter layin' me to da' BONE! Jackin' me up...
tight me!
Randy: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
First Jive Dude: Cutty say 'e can't HANG!
Jive Lady: Oh stewardess! I speak jive.
Randy: Oh, good.
Jive Lady: He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you
can help him.
Randy: All right. Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as
soon as I can with some medicine?
Jive Lady: Jus' hang loose, blood. She gonna catch ya up on da' rebound
on da' med side.
Second Jive Dude: What it is, big mama? My mama no raise no dummies. I
dug her rap!
Jive Lady: Cut me some slack, Jack! Chump don' want no help, chump don't
GET da' help!
First Jive Dude: Say 'e can't hang, say seven up!
Jive Lady: Jive ass dude don't got no brains anyhow! Hmmph!





>
> Jonathon has (1) drunk, from the '60's and '70's (2)
> well-dressed, only from the '70's. However, the meaning,
> "drunk," is *totally* unfamiliar to me and I was still on the
> scene in Los Angeles, in those days. I know that Jonathon can
> document his dates, so my guess is that this "drunk" meaning
> was perhaps regional or something. "Well-dressed"
> in the '70's may have been a brief rebirth, since, in my
> experience, the term hadn't been used "for days" (meaning
> "for years," of course), except by old-heads, like me and
> Judge Greg, by that time. Hearing it was definitely a "blast
> from the past."
>

>
>
> The Judge David Young Show
>
> Fifty-ish, black, male plaintiff:
>
> "I just wanted to be friends, your honor. She shoulda _BIN
> knowin'_ that!"
>
> Forty-ish, black, female defendant:
>
> "We went to the _money-place_ and I gave him $200.00 out my account."
>
> I, personally, use "money-machine." I have no idea why it's
> so hard for us colored folks to learn to say "ATM (machine),"
> like y'all do.
>
> -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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