_melonfarmer_ "motherfucker" In HDAS?

[Jonathan Lighter]

With no other plausible claimant, credit for "pimpmobile," coined May 15,
1963, must go to Wilson.

"Melon farmer" is one I've not encountered.

JL

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 1:10 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:      _melonfarmer_ "motherfucker" In HDAS?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Used by a character in the '09 re-run, Observe and Report.
>
> But, AFAIK, the term was introduced, if not invented, by Lou Rawls in
> his off-the-cuff monologue, "Streetcorner Hustler Blues," used as the
> opening for the song, "World of Trouble" in his album, Lou
> Rawls--Live, 1966.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfu8k8es_iY
>
> He also introduced therein the phrase, "white-on-white-in-white," to
> describe the classic "pimpmobile" of the '60's: a showroom-new, white
> Cadillac convertible with a white top and with a white leather or -
> more likely, a white naugahyde, that being very hip at the time,
> moreso than ordinary leather; I owned a pair of naugahyde Johnston &
> Murphys - interior. _Pimpmobile_ is a term that I invented on May 15,
> 1963. (Naturally, it didn't occur to me to document this and I've long
> since lost track of the ace-boon to whom I spoke it. Not that his word
> would constitute "documentation" any more than my own word does, but,
> you know..<sigh!>) :-(
>
> But, seriously, folks, the term is so obvious that tens of thousands
> of others were, no doubt, independently speaking it in chorus with me,
> if not before me.
>
> Rawls's original formula is often reinterpreted to mean that some
> nouveaux-riche black dude has a white woman sitting _on_ white leather
> _in_ his white 'chine of whatever marque. This reinterpretation is
> probably due to the fact that _pimpmobile_ no longer has a standard
> definition. One of my ace-boons, back in the day, drove a used,
> shocking-pink, flame-jobbed Merc. Nowadays, that junker [Whoa! Just
> heard "Go get some boody!" used as the shikai to release the hidden
> power of a Shinigami's zanpakutoo. Youneverknow.] might be called a
> "pimpmobile," The word has come to mean, "any car other than a hoopty
> that a person of taste wouldn't be caught dead driving."
>
> On the gossip show, TMZ, the guys sang a song in which they described
> Charlire Sheen as liking to "tap that ass."
>
> I'm slowly learning not to be freaked out by this kind of
> trivialization of a once pefectly-good obscenity for which "get some
> pussy" was a cover. Oh, well.
>
> --
> -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
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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