[Ads-l] _broker than the Ten Commandments_

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Apr 15 23:07:20 UTC 2016


Not in HDAS?

Ladies' Home Journal - Volume 66 - Page 46
https://books.google.com/books?id=wNQcAQAAMAAJ
1949 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
A boy without money is "_broker than the Ten Commandments_"; a "lovely" is
homely; "saggy" is tired, but "soggy" is dull. "You're all right in your
place, but they haven't dug it yet" or "You're a neat guy, but there's just
no demand for them" is a brush-off. A boy trying to get a date with an
extra-popular girl may find it's "as easy as stacking greased BB's with
boxing gloves on!" Answering the phone, teeners say, "Shoot, it's your
nickel"; "State Prison, Inmate 13"; "This is heaven, which angel do you
want?"; or "I don't care if you did call, I don't want to talk to you" -
with a quick bang of the receiver. Their slang is so complicated that even
teeners themselves, changing high schools, sometimes need an interpreter. A
"lotus" is a boy; a "lotus blossom" is a girl. If a girl "courts to get her
votes," she necks to be popular. And if she "courts up a a storm," she
necks heavily....Everybody's doing it. Dallas boys like to sport boogie
haircuts (short on top and long on the sides), bur cuts (clipped to within
an inch of the scalp) and even Apache cuts (which, unlike boogie cuts,
leave a ridge of long hair on top of the head).

Given that I learned this phrase no earlier than 1957 and it's in a square,
white-lady's mag two years later, either it's a lot older than 1947 or it
was far more popular than I thought.

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



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