does and is (UNCLASSIFIED)

[George Thompson]

I think one of the barfiles in "Ulysses" uses a sort of spoonerized verison of "does a duck swim?" --  "does a swim duck?"  It doesn't turn up in Google Books, but the expression gets some matches in plain old-fashioned Google.

Probably Lenehan -- seems the sort of thing he would say.

Back when my youth was in its flower, say 2003, or a bit earlier, maybe 1964 -- I had Ulysses nearly memorized.  It bothers me not to recall this exactly.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:10 pm
Subject: Re: does and is (UNCLASSIFIED)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> In the parlance of folklorists (and a few other sorts of scholars),
> these expressions are commonly called "sarcastic interrogatives" or
> "sarcastic interrogative affirmatives" and ". . . negatives."  I
> myself coined the somewhat awkward terms back in 1975.  A recent discussion:
>
> Charles Clay Doyle, "Is the Pope Still Catholic?  Historical
> Obsrvations on Sarcastic Interrogatives," _Western Folklore_ 67
> (2008): 5-33.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 12:50 PM
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does a chicken have lips?  (Quick!! Does it??)
>
> Is a pig's *ass* pork?
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 12:12 PM, William Salmon <
> wsalmon1 at interchange.ubc.ca> wrote:
> >
> > > Does . .  .
> > >
> > > A bear shit in the woods
> > > A frog have a watertight ass?
> > > The pope wear a funny hat?
> > > Rose Kennedy have a black dress?
> >
> > #2 actually goes in the 'IS' category for me. Like this: "Is a
> frog's ass
> > watertight?"
> >
> > Also, to add to the 'IS' list: "Is a preacher sober on Sunday?"
> >
> > WS
> >
> > > Is . . .
> > > The pope Catholic?
> > > A pig's pecker pork?
> > > A bull's balls beef?
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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