"collude" = "create cutting-edge work with an avant-garde artist"

[Laurence Horn]

On May 12, 2013, at 11:04 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 5/11/2013 02:58 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> And for those wanting to know more, there's always wikipedia:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Mead%27s_Ass
>>
>> But I kind of like the way Martin puts it,
>> whether or not "ass" really is off-limits for
>> the Gray Lady in the fundamental rather than
>> donkey-referential sense.  After all, once
>> "derrière" had been referenced earlier in the
>> piece, "though the Anglo-Saxon term was used
>> instead of the French" is nicely allusive
>> compared with e.g. "the English word 'ass' was
>> used in place of 'derrière'"; it rewards the
>> reader for doing a little extra inferencing, which never hurts anyone.
>
> I enjoyed Martin's rhetoric also, as well
> Warhol's (“We are rectifying this
> undersight”).  My question was only about whether
> the NYT had any rule.  Especially about French
> ("derrière" permitted) vs. English ("ass"
> not).

But "derrière" would be closer to "behind" (or at most "butt") than to "ass".  "Fesse" isn't really out there either.  The ass-id test would be whether they'd print "cul", "asshole", both, or neither.

LH, reminded as always of "London Derrière"

--And on the point below, there are also the English bits that have become juicier with the passage of time, e.g.

She [Miss Twitterton] embarked on an agitated description of the previous night's events, in which the keys, the chimneys, Crutchley's new garage, the bed-linen, the ten o'clock bus, and Peter's intention of putting in an electric plant were jumbled into hopeless confusion. The vicar ejaculated from time to time and looked increasingly bewildered.  “Most trying, most trying,” he said at length, when Miss Twitterton had talked herself breathless.
            —Dorothy L. Sayers (1937), _Busman's Honeymoon_ (London: Victor Gollancz), p. 113



> As apparently did Dorothy Sayers, who
> presented the juicy bits between Peter and Harriet in French.
>
> Joel
>
>> LH
>>
>> On May 11, 2013, at 2:28 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>> > The opening sentence of the NYTimes's obituary of
>> > "Taylor Mead, Bohemian And Actor", by Douglas
>> > Martin, as printed on May 10, 2013 (B17, NY edition; B15, N.E. edition).
>> >
>> > "Taylor Mead, a poet, actor and exuberant
>> > bohemian who colluded with Andy Warhol in the
>> > 1960s to nurture a new approach to making movies
>> > — sometimes spontaneously, always inexpensively
>> > (hand-held 16-millimeter cameras sufficed) and
>> > brashly experimental (one film consisted of an
>> > hourlong shot of Mr. Mead’s bare posterior) —
>> died on Wednesday in Colorado."
>> >
>> > In the rest of the article, I didn't observe
>> > anything illegal or unethicial ... unless one
>> > wants to count two films exhibiting Mr. Taylor's
>> > bare derrière.  (See below for more about the rear unguarded.)
>> >
>> > The OED2 does complete its sense 1 for "collude"
>> > with "to act in play merely" [no, not barely],
>> > but I can't associate "collude" with mere playacting.
>> >
>> > Changed to "collaborated" on-line.
>> >
>> > Concerning the rear -- The obituary includes the following two paragraphs:
>> >
>> > "Mr. Mead played Tarzan, edited the film and
>> > handled the sound. On screen, his sarong kept
>> > falling off while climbing trees, prompting a
>> > critic to say that he really did not want to see
>> > any more two-hour films of Mr. Mead’s derrière.
>> >
>> > "Warhol wrote a letter to The Village Voice
>> > saying that after searching “the vast Warhol
>> > archives,” he could find no two-hour film of Mr.
>> > Mead’s behind. “We are rectifying [sic] this
>> > undersight [sic],” he said, and soon made what
>> > would become a little-seen cult classic, the
>> > title describing in three words precisely what
>> > the critic did not want to see (though the
>> > coarser Anglo-Saxon term was used instead of the French)."
>> >
>> > Is Mr. Morgan being coy, or does the NYTimes ban "ass"?
>> >
>> > Joel
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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