Heard on Springer

[Wilson Gray]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:24 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>
> The bases - 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

Surprising as it may be, there's a bit of cultural difference
involved, here. Among the colored - among those of my era, at least -
this particular metaphor is unknown. I've heard it spoken of in the
movies and on radio and TV and I've read it in magazines and books,
but I've never know its reference. Indeed, the "bases" metaphor is so
orthogonal to black life that I've never even felt the least
motivation to discover its meaning, beyond that it lists a series of
steps involved in the attainment of the goal of tapping that ass.

Now that I think of it, I've never heard the "bases" metaphor used by
anyone of any race in real life. That is, there has never arisen an
occasion for me to ask, e.g "When you say that you 'only got to second
base,' what is it that you intend me to understand by that, beyond the
fact that you didn't get over?"

It goes without saying that I don't understand the basis of your reanalysis.

As a Canadian friend says, "What the hell, eh?":-)

--
-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