[Ads-l] "on-court gags =?Windows-1252?Q?=97_?=or reams, as the players called them " (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

Also, ream (v) = to cornhole, to anally rape.  Perhaps Jonathan's definition is an extension?  Or the other way 'round?
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "on-court gags =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=94_?=or reams, as the players
>               called them "
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Among other things, to "ream" has long meant to "victimize" in nasty or painful ways.  Also to "upbraid" furiously.
> 
> The Globetrotters' noun, however, is new to me.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 1:22 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> wrote:
> 
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject:      "on-court gags =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=94_?=or reams, as the players
> >               called them "
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > From the obituary of Meadowlark Lemon in today's NYTimes:
> >
> > Within a few years, he had assumed the central role of showman, taking
> > over from the Trotters=E2=80=99 long-reigning clown prince Reece
> > Tatum, whom eve= ryone called Goose.
> >
> > Tatum, who had left the team around the time Lemon joined it, was a
> > superb ballplayer whose on-court gags =E2=80=94 or reams, as the
> > players called th= em =E2=80=94 had established the team=E2=80=99s
> > reputation for laugh-inducing wizardry at a championship level.
> >
> > (This is referring to the Harlem Globetrotters basketball act.)
> >
> > I've tried for years through prayer and fasting to ascend to that
> > glorious region where there are complete sets of HDAS, but I remain
> > earthbound.  So I may never know whether HDAS has this term.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > George A. Thompson
> > The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998..
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society -
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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