drunk and disorderly

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Thanks, Wilson.

I am sure that the police are much more linguistically sophisticated these days.

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 28, 2011, at 5:09 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 2:22 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> I remember this term very well. 55 years ago in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at =
>> midnight behind Danceland Ballroom, I was arrested with my best for =
>> being "drunk and disorderly" and spent the night in jail in a cell by =
>> myself; I remember being horrified that the toilet had no wooden seat. =
>> The judge gave me a directed verdict of "not guilty," which I do think =
>> was fair and just (the arresting officer testified that he knew I was =
>> drunk because I told him, "I have not indulged in promiscuous =
>> consumption" to deny the putative cause of my alleged drunkenness, and =
>> "Thoreau would be proud of me" as he clanked the lock-up door shut. =
>> Smart-assed little twit!). I learned my lesson and have not been in a =
>> jail cell since (not sure if Thoreau would be proud of me for that, =
>> considering what all the Yankee college students were doing in the South =
>> for civil rights in the 1950s). Not sure that I am not still a =
>> smart-assed twit.
>
> FWIW, I find that anecdote to be a real thigh-slapper! Standing up to
> The Man and then getting busted for speech above and beyond the
> vocabulary of a policeman... Priceless!
>
> --
> -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

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