Snake Mary

[Jonathan Lighter]

In WVE also to "give somebody a hunch" used to mean to give them a
figurative nudge. Hence, "hunch," an inkling.

JL


On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:12 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Snake Mary
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>
> Baltimore Afro-American April 28, 1934, headline
>                SEEK WITCH GIRL
>  "_Snake Mary_" Is Sought in Fairy Killing
>
>
> Apparently, who or what "Snake Mary" is depends on where you are. I'd never
> heard of Snake Mary, in either Marshall or St. Louis, before I went to Los
> Angeles in 1957. There, the local bruz, when calling upon Lady Luck in the
> course of a game of chance, would shout,
>
> "Snake Mary! Hunch me, Snake!"
>
> And I haven't heard it since, possibly because I don't gamble. In the
> aforementioned instance, I was hanging out at the L.A. chapterhouse of my
> fraternity and I was shocked, shocked! that there was gambling going on.
>
> In BE, _hunch_ as a verb means "nudge." Naturally, the standard noun is
> also known and, of course, any noun can be verbed. So, I was never able to
> decide whether Snake Mary was being called upon to nudge the player when
> the proper time to go all in came or to give the player a hunch as to how
> to proceed over the course of the game.
>
> In the banner spread above, "fairy" means "gay man." I had *no* idea that
> "fairy" could ever  have been used so casually in the headline of one of
> the "Big Three" of national black newspapers. My initial impression was
> that a witch, some kind of Snake Mary, had killed somebody else with magic.
> Then I read the article.
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> OT: trashnews headline:
>
> "Scary Proof That Something Is About To Happen!"
>
> --
> -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
>
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