mystery meat

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 15, 2012, at 1:57 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:

> At exactly the same time that  Arnold was eating mystery meat in the dining clubs of Princeton, I was offered, in the cafeteria of Hillcrest Dorm the University of Iowa, thin grey slices of what surely must have been beef and grey gravy, which the boys termed "mystery meat." I don't remember hearing the term before 1958, but we doubtless heard it from upperclassmen.
>
> I imagine that few members of this list-serv who were freshmen before 1958 are still alive to report. College newspapers from 1950-1960 might turn up something.
>
> In the 1970s, the same term applied in conjunction with anonymous oral sex, especially when the the body of the oralee was minimally revealed to the oralor (as for example through a small opening in a wall or door).
>
And that puts a whole new slant (if I can put it that way) on the old Civil War era tune Ora Lee (a.k.a. Aura Lee, or Love Me Tender for the Elvisites).  Now the trick will be to hear the melody without thinking of um...mystery meat.

LH

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