"Hustle [one's] nuts"

[George Thompson]

Meaning perhaps a posture or way of walking that would direct attention to the crotch?  Jelly Roll Morton, in his interviews for the Library of Congress, remembered that, in old-time New Orleans, young toughs had a way of walking called "shooting the agate".

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008 6:45 pm
Subject: Re: "Hustle [one's] nuts"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> FWIW, it was mentioned in a review of a Lily Tomlin stage show from
> many (25?) years ago. In one of her sketches she played a lounge
> lizard. The reviewer wrote that she was masculine to the extent of
> _hustling "his" nuts_ or words to that effect.
>
> I've never heard the phrase spoken and that was the only time that
> I've ever seen it in print (Time? Newsweek? NYT?). The writer didn't
> say what the phrase meant, but, to me, its meaning seems "intuitively
> obvious," to coin a phrase.
>
> I just got tired of waiting for it to come up again. "If you want a
> thing done, do it yourself," as the saying goes.
>
> -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.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 5:31 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Scot LaFaive <slafaive at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "Hustle [one's] nuts"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Unfortunately not until now.
> >
> > Scot
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 12:17 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:      "Hustle [one's] nuts"
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Is anyone else familiar with this expression used to describe what's
> >> otherwise described by "grab [one's] crotch" or some such?
> >>
> >> -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.
> >> -----
> >> -Mark Twain
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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