[Ads-l] QOTY? "It was not my first sword dance." --- Rex Tillerson.

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed May 24 18:38:03 UTC 2017


> On May 24, 2017, at 2:26 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> "Not that there's anything wrong with that," from Seinfeld, has the same
> connotation.
> 
> DanG
> 
> On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 2:00 PM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
> RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
> 
>>>> 
>>>> I never knew that the phrase had a gay connotation, and I doubt that
>>>> Tillerson does either.
>>> 
>>> It doesn’t, I’m pretty sure.  “Sword fight” does, as noted with the
>> reference below to the jousting shenanigans—not a *gay* connotation
>>> necessarily, but that’s in the ballpark. (See
>> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sword%20fighting for
>> details.)  Even
>>> urban dictionary doesn’t have anything racy on sword dancing.
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> See the phrase, "That's what SHE said," especially as used by Michael
>> Scott on "The Office."  It follows that ANY phrase (at least, any phrase
>> involving something as phallic as a sword) can be made to have a racy
>> and/or gay connotation.


A bit like the game of appending “in bed” to any fortune cookie message...

>>  "Sword dance" may not currently have one, but it
>> could.

True enough, especially if accompanied by a raised eyebrow.

LH
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