"uterus" an indecorous word? ("slut" in the news)

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jul 8 11:26:04 UTC 2011


Tangentially related:

Shortly after the verdict, Tot Mom attorney Cheney Mason was photographed
prominently and gleefully giving the finger to a mob of anti-Tot Mom
protesters outside the restaurant, across from the court house, where the
defense team was partying down, high-fiving, jumping for joy, etc.  Can't
blame 'em, right? Everybody loves a winner!

I can remember the minor scandal when Red Sox pitcher Ike DeLock was tossed
from a game (ca1959) and, IIRC, suspended, for making what was the _New York
World Telegram and Sun_ called "an obscene gesture." I remember because I
wanted to know what "obscene gesture" meant, and I had Ike on a baseball
card. In fact, it was probably two years before I discovered the
explanation.

Mason's public behavior as a member of the bar, in front of cameras, under
those circumstances, strikes me as a wee bit remarkable and (nowadays)
yawningly abhorrent.


JL

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 2:30 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "uterus" an indecorous word? ("slut" in the news)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 1:36 AM, paul johnson <paulzjoh at mtnhome.com> wrote:
> > Democrat chastised for saying 'uterus' on House floor
>
> Perhaps they would have preferred that he had broken stone nasty on
> their asses and gone totally four-letter Anglo-Saxon with
>
> _womb_.
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> --
> -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
>



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