[Ads-l] _show one's ass_ "act in such a way as to annoy another or others; break nasty"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Nov 25 08:22:44 UTC 2016


A "traditional" BE phrase euphemized by my Texas grandparents as "show
one's behind."

Decisions and orders of the National Labor Relations Board
https://books.google.com/books?id=gKU7Jr1usj0C
United States. National Labor Relations Board - 1986 - Volume 279 - Page 471
     9. On October 23, Bliss asked Howell why Crane had been laid off.
Howell allegedly responded that it was because Crane "_showed his ass_,"
would not work, would sit around and smoke and drink coffee, and would not
get to work when told to do so. Howell is then alleged to have told White
that if White and Bliss did not like the way things are done


The snippet ends there, but my guess is that Howell showed White and Bliss
*his* ass.

By coincidence, in the neo-blaxploitation that I'm watching there occurs
this bit of dialogue:

Grandson: "How about you, grandad? Will *you* give me some money?"
Grandad  : "Don't ask *me*! I had to _show my ass_ to get a strip of bacon!
(because he's supposed to be on a flesh-free diet. As Redd Foxx observed,
"You can't cold-turkey pork!"; as a former colleague put it, "Bacon is the
candy of meats!")"
-- 
-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

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



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