OT: No, I'm not funning with Wilson

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

This is 99% off-topic. --- Wilson is certain I'm funning with him, and the more I assure him I'm not, the more  certain he is that I am.  I was merely intrigued by his use (and not just his, of course) of the term "muthafukka" to indicate something truly excellent.  And in all seriousness I was wondering how this semantic development occurred.
 
    Anyway (and this is the OT) part.  I've been told I bear some resemblance to Woody Allen, and for a while I wore glasses which by chance were identical to his.  In 1992 I was walking along 59th Street in NYC (this was about the time that the Woody Allen and Soon-Yi scandal was  getting a big play in the newspapers), and a park attendant coming from the other direction saw me and said (absolutely no joking here): "Woody Allen, get the hell out of here."  I just walked on without saying anything.
 
    On a lighter note in this vein, every morning I bought the NY Times at the corner newspaper stand on 57th Street, and the fellow who worked there was certain that I was Woody Allen.  And the more I told him I wasn't, the more certain he was that I was joshing him.  This went on every day for several months.
 
    So one of the lessons I've learned in life is that when someone is certain he's being joshed, denials will be taken as additional evidence that joshing really is going on.  So to Wilson (aka W., aka "Money"--and Wilson is free to explain how he got this nickname), I say:  Okay, I really was funning with you.
 
    (But actually I wasn't).
 
G.  

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
Sent: Sat 6/27/2009 1:05 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Jenny Agutter (was went walkabout ) (UNCLASSIFIED)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admit it, G. You're funning with me!

-W

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard<gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:   American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:  Re: Jenny Agutter (was went walkabout ) (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> No I wasn't messing with Wilson.  I was just wondering how the French =
> term he used could have acquired the meaning "something really =
> excellent." I know that Wilson didn't invent the term or its varied =
> usage.
> =20
> Anyway, please consider my question merely musing. =20
> =20
> G.
>
> ________________________________
>
> Message from Wilson Gray, Thu 6/25/2009 9:02 PM
>
> G, I don't think that total command of the dialect is required. Of
> course, I could very well be leaping to an unwarranted conclusion. You
> never know. Or are you just messing with me?
>
> <snip>
>
> -Wilson
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard<gcohen at mst.edu> =
> wrote:
>>=20
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> =C2 <snip>
>> =C2 That movie is - if y'all will pahdn ma Fraynch - a muthafukka!
>
>> And how does this French term describe something favorable?
>>
>> Gerald Cohen
>>
>

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