More on "moist"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Just so future ages (if any) be not misled about the history of humor.

In 1974-75 my next-door neighbor observed that a girl who'd "had a good time
on a date" could tell by flinging her panties against the wall. If they
stuck, she'd had a good time.

The word "moist" was not mentioned, IIRC.  As old-timey grammarians say, it
was "understood."

(I guess this joke is sexist. Wouldn't she just know, like, in her mind?  I
mean, without messing up the wall and stuff?)

JL


On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 8:53 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: More on "moist"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Remembrance of Things Past:
> from Wilson,  November, 2007:
> Heard on "Comedy Channel":
>
> "[A consequence of growing up as a Catholic girl is that] I developed
> a thing for Jewish men. Every time I see a yarmulke, I get _moist_."
>
> > > At 8/10/2009 12:34 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
> > >>I was perhaps stretching things to attribute the actual expression
> > >>"moist panties" to Erica Jong.  (Chances are, no panties were
> > >>involved!)  What I was thinking was that the wetness of female lust,
> > >>which does figure in Jong's book,  might have been embarrassing enough
> > >>to many women that  "moistness"
> > >>itself could by association become offensive.   Just a WAG.
>
> The Columbia U. radio station in the 90s and before, carried an opera show
> hosted by Stefan Zucker, (slightly more demented than the average
> opera-lover -- in his younger years he indeed used to bill himself as Stefan
> the Mad).  He would take telephone calls from his listeners and relay the
> gist to his audience.  One day a woman who was president of a Jose Carreras
> fan-club called with the observation that she could always tell when a
> recording was by Carreras, because after hearing it, if she were to toss her
> panties into the air, they would stick to the ceiling.
>
> Don't try this at home.
>
> I thank my wife for refreshing my memory of this.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
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