Heard on The Judges

Tue Mar 4 23:09:43 UTC 2008

I looked at those iMDB transcriptions and found them to be too fucked
up for me to need to pay any attention to them. After all, I'm coming
from my own native dialect, not from someone else's. I'd have to see
the script itself, before I'd modify my claim and, perhaps, I wouldn't
do it, then, since the movie was made by white people, for white
people, to suit white people's taste. I grew up in Saint Louis in the
'Forties and 'Fifties and Judge Mathis grew up in Detroit in the
'Sixties and 'Seventies and we both agree that "laid to the bone"
means "sharp as a skeeter's peter."

That's good enough for me.

Did you see the TV-show re-run last night, wherein the white cop asks
the white witness something like, "Well, what did the guy look like?"
And said white witness answers something like, "Oh, you know. He just
looked _normal_." "Do you smell what The Wil is cooking?" to
paraphrase Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

-Wilson

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 3:52 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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>  Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>  Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges
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>  > -----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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>  >
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>  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.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org