"Blue balls"

[Jonathan Lighter]

But if you think *that's* weird:

2007 [
http://groups.google.com.bn/group/ba.bicycles/browse_thread/thread/c3822a333971d8d8]:
Dad was a field surveys topographer for USGS and one of the things he
did was research names, often by interviewing locals. I remember him
struggling to find a publishable name for "Piss Pot Creek" in south
eastern Oregon once.

JL
On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 1:36 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Blue balls"
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>
> When I was a freshman in high school, Harry Gleason, the asshole who
> sat in front of me, used to use the just-for-the-hell-of-it phrase:
>
> "_Blue-balled_ bastard from Piss-Pot Creek"
>
> This, (9/1950) was the first time that I had heard "blue balls" or any
> of its variations, combinations, permutations, or probabilities. The
> phrase, in that context or any other, meant nothing to me and
> continued to mean nothing till ca.1991. When a (white) friend happened
> to use the phrase, "blue balls," for some reason, I finally felt like
> asking what it meant. From the explanation, I divined that "blue
> balls" was the white term for "lover's nuts." That satisfied me till I
> listened to a blues recorded in 1934 by Walter Roland, whoever he was,
> of Alabama. This song opens with the verse:
>
> You know, since I lef' Cincinnati
> You know I had somethin' on my mind
> [...] the head o' my dick
> And blue balls in my groin
>
> "Groin" is pronounced as "grin(d)" and, hence, rhymes with "min(d)."
> Apparently, this was *a*, if not *the*, usual pronunciation of -oin at
> one time, since I've also come across, e.g. "suhline steak" for
> "sirloin steak." It may still be used, somewhere or other. You never
> know. IME, there's no conversation to speak of, WRT different kinds of
> steak and "crouch," i.e. "crotch" (eggcorn?) is the word for "groin."
> A Los Angeles oddity: Japanese-American (_sansei_) friends of mine who
> spoke the local standard and made no attempt to get linguistically
> down with the colored people, nevertheless used "crouch" for "crotch"
> and were fully persuaded of its correctness:
>
> S. "... crouch ..."
>
> W. "You mean, 'crotch.' "
>
> S. "What? [Has no idea WTF I'm talking about] Anyway, as I was saying,
> ... crouch ..."
>
> They didn't spell it "crouch. They just pronounced it that way, just
> as I once said "mordn," but wrote "modern."
>
>
> IAC, this is the first time that I've ever heard "blue balls" used,
> except in its literal meaning, by a black person in my life.
> Consequently, I would have bet money, heretofore, that the average
> black male of whatever age probably had also never heard it. If it
> wasn't for the fact that, to paraphrase Dave Chapelle, "I know white
> people," I would have no idea what "blue balls in my groin / croutch"
> could possibly have meant, back in '34, since it would be brand-new to
> me.
>
> BTW, the black Cincinnatians that I know say "Cincinnnata," not
> "Cincinnati," as Roland says.
>
> And that reminds me of my grandparents, who used "Missoura." I once
> read somewhere that, speaking sociologically, there is a "Northern"
> Missouri - Saint Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City - with final [i] /
> [I]., and a "Southern" Missouri - "outstate" - with final [@].
>
> My grandparents never lived anywhere but East Texas, yet their natural
> pronunciation of "Missouri" was the "Southern" one. And I would bet
> that they never had occasion to say "Missouri" more than fifty times
> altogether in their entire lives. How weird is that?
>
> -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
>
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