"this sucks" (and more)

[David A. Daniel]

On sucks: the T-Shirt, bumper-sticker, book-title phrase "there is no such
thing as gravity, the Earth sucks" goes back several decades as I recall,
and this obviously makes reference to what one does with a straw in a
milkshake, or what a vacuum cleaner does, or what M Lewinsky was
accomplished in, as it is the sucking action that would draw one to Earth,
and apparently also refers to the idea of just being bad, unpleasant or
substandard and, well, sucky. On the other hand, today, whether or not
someone thinks that sucks has to do strictly with fellatio probably depends
on the age of the person in question. Younger person - no fellatio; Older
person - fellatio. It would be interesting to take a poll... I also think
sucks is popular because suck and fuck are just one letter apart and thus
both have that good old Anglo Saxon guttural, ugly-sounding clout to them,
kind of makes them a complementary pair.

On KHJ: L.A.'s KHJ was actually "Boss Radio 93". KFWB was "Channel 98, Color
Radio". I don't remember either one calling itself kick-ass, but then I
don't remember everything... They were both Top 40-type stations for a
while, then KFWB went all news in 1968.
DAD


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On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/on-the-taboo-avoidance-patrol/
>

FWIW, in the '60's, L.A.'s Radio KHJ, Channel 98, featured not only
"color" radio, but also "kick-ass" radio, according to its main DJ, a
white guy who called himself "Yo' Bruthuh."

At that time, that a white guy should speak so on the public airwaves
kicked *much* ass, even in LA-LA LAnd.

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