tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post8392124008154850568..comments2023-10-25T05:30:54.507-04:00Comments on Oh Get A Grip!: Fads Sweet FadsAshe Barkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03390519279886657608noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-56920373681793006602017-08-01T07:30:05.086-04:002017-08-01T07:30:05.086-04:00We were also a swearing household when I was a kid...We were also a swearing household when I was a kid. (My dad was a professor who was as fluent in four-letter words as he was in intellectual vocabulary.) I took my own fluency to the next level when I was away at summer camp. You should see the letters I wrote home!Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-59836422829182116732017-07-31T22:13:13.479-04:002017-07-31T22:13:13.479-04:00Oh! I'm so relieved! After I published this, ...Oh! I'm so relieved! After I published this, I worried that you might take offense, where none was meant. One of my cousins is gay, and he used to spend time at my parents' house, since his mom was my mom's closest sister. No one ever treated him like he was weird or anything. But Dad was from a different era, born in 1927 and all, and he had some ancient ideas. <br /><br />I grew up in a house where if it wasn't my mom swearing (she'd grown up in a family of 10, all 5 brothers were in WW11, and what swear words they hadn't mastered before they joined the war, they perfected into an art form once they got home), it was my dad, who polished off his swearing repertoire in the British army. I thought everyone said, "No shit, Sherlock," for "no kidding." As a kid it didn't occur to me that everyone's parents didn't talk like that. Took me quite a while to learn how to tone it down.<br /> <br />I finally started watching my language (at least when I had young kids) when I was pregnant with the 2nd kid, and too big to drive anymore, so husband drove me and our 2-year old to the OB office. Some bitch cut him off in traffic and I yelled out the window, "You cunt!" He had to sit in the waiting room with other pregnant women while I was being seen, while our 2-year-old repeated over and over again, his favorite new word. My husband shrugged a few times, trying to explain that "Just because mommy uses those words, doesn't mean you should." He was mad at me, because he didn't figure any of those women believed him that it was me with the potty mouth, not him.Fiona McGierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13495707848048468428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-60449055561482463842017-07-31T16:37:31.202-04:002017-07-31T16:37:31.202-04:00When I was a kid, the packaging of candy cigarette...When I was a kid, the packaging of candy cigarettes was so over-the-top creepy as to actually mimic cigarette brand names and graphic design—so, for instance, one line would be packaged to look like Marlboro and have a fake name almost like Marlboro. So kids could practice "smoking" their parents' favorite brands. As a matter of fact, I think it may have been in Canada (where I lived for a few years as a kid in the late 1960s) that I was first exposed to these.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-8782702969864009562017-07-31T16:25:27.657-04:002017-07-31T16:25:27.657-04:00Sorry for a million comments here -- but up here i...Sorry for a million comments here -- but up here in Canada, I've only seen these candy cigarettes as branded under the cartoon character Popeye. I think they used to be called candy cigarettes and had a red tip -- but now they're "candy sticks" and are just all white.Cameron D. Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825600675668853636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-87818877808283899002017-07-31T16:23:49.173-04:002017-07-31T16:23:49.173-04:00I'll gladly put a fag in my mouth. (And I don&...I'll gladly put a fag in my mouth. (And I don't mean a cigarette.)<br /><br />;)Cameron D. Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825600675668853636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-38179324249054532852017-07-31T16:23:19.434-04:002017-07-31T16:23:19.434-04:00Hahaha -- as a gay man, I think I'm going to s...Hahaha -- as a gay man, I think I'm going to start using "shite-stabbing" as euphemism for sex. ;)Cameron D. Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825600675668853636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-77966422548341280902017-07-31T13:38:21.020-04:002017-07-31T13:38:21.020-04:00Me late faither used to call his cigarettes "...Me late faither used to call his cigarettes "fags." He claimed to have picked it up as slang while in the British army, doing his compulsory 2 years, from age 18-20...after which he hopped the nearest ocean liner to cross the pond and come to Chicago.<br /><br />As in, "Gi' us a fag, will ye?"<br /><br />His term for homosexual men was not "gay." He was righteous about how that was a perfectly good word being ruined by association. His term was "shite-stabber." Ahem. Rude and totally politically incorrect. But that was what he was like.Fiona McGierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13495707848048468428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-3519544836348074442017-07-31T12:45:43.199-04:002017-07-31T12:45:43.199-04:00Whether or not the "faggot" bundle of st...Whether or not the "faggot" bundle of sticks and the "fasces" bundle of sticks are related does not seem clear. Merriam-Webster Unabridged makes no explicit connection, and presents divergent etymologies (see below); and yet it doesn't seem to rule out the possibility that the trails converge in Ancient Greece.<br /><br />M-W on <i>fag(g)ot</i>:<br />Middle English <i>fagot</i>, from Middle French <i>fagot</i>, probably from Old Provençal, perhaps from (assumed) Vulgar Latin <i>facus</i>, modification of Greek <i>phakelos</i><br /><br />And on <i>fasces</i>:<br />Latin, from plural of <i>fascis</i> bundle; akin to Latin <i>fascia</i> bandJeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-22115833119569653542017-07-31T11:41:21.008-04:002017-07-31T11:41:21.008-04:00I have to wonder if the fasces was a possible orig...I have to wonder if the fasces was a possible origin of the word as a bundle of sticks. A fasces was on the reverse of the U.S. "mercury" dime (actually Winged Liberty dime) which was changed in 1946 to the Roosevelt type (with a torch reverse) since fascism had caused such shit in the early 20th century. Daddy Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927663248424944119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-91556767246105748522017-07-30T11:40:50.547-04:002017-07-30T11:40:50.547-04:00I remember the candy cigarettes, too. At least the...I remember the candy cigarettes, too. At least they tasted better than the wax <br />"lips".Sacchi Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801164916418570059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-61505042706564117892017-07-30T11:39:10.740-04:002017-07-30T11:39:10.740-04:00Ah, how could I forget the "fag" scenes ...Ah, how could I forget the "fag" scenes in Tom Brown's School Days, published in 1857, set in 1830 at the renowned Rugby "public" school? I loved that book when I was a kid, with all its presumably accurate British school atmosphere. It appears to have greatly influenced the entire genre of British school novels, up to and including Harry Potter. I do admit that the quite rough "fag" part shocked my pre-adolescent self. There may well have been sexual nuances to that, but at the time they escaped me. Sacchi Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801164916418570059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-74794513729764407852017-07-30T08:44:17.208-04:002017-07-30T08:44:17.208-04:00Here's what the research says (Partridge slang...Here's what the research says (Partridge slang dictionary, Merriam-Webster, and Online Etymology Dictionary): "Faggot" for bundle of sticks goes way back through the centuries, and the Italian word for bassoon is indeed derived from that (because one carries the instrument disassembled, in the form of two separate "sticks"). "Faggot" for homosexual can be traced to 1916 (U.S.; origin unknown), with the shortened form "fag" only a few years newer at most. On the UK side, "fag" for cigarette can be traced to the late 19th century, while "fagged [out]" for exhausted seems to date back centuries, in one way or another, and appears to be related to the "fag" verb forms having to do with students acting as servants for other students. The "exhausted" meanings seem to have a root associated with drooping, which in turn may be related to "fag [end]," a centuries-old term for a knotted rag-end or some such thing. Surprisingly, the cigarette meaning seems to derive from the knotted-cloth thing, not the stick thing, which as far as I can gather are two separate etymological threads.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-47585178359632630152017-07-30T00:54:11.523-04:002017-07-30T00:54:11.523-04:00I remember candy cigarettes when I was growing up....I remember candy cigarettes when I was growing up. They were peppermint flavored sugar sticks, white with red tips. <br /><br />My mom and dad both smoked. Seems like ancient history.Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-27016358428256000782017-07-29T22:48:15.148-04:002017-07-29T22:48:15.148-04:00I haven't researched it, but I wonder whether ...I haven't researched it, but I wonder whether the Italian word for bassoon (fagotti) has anything to do with it. It's hard wood, you put your mouth on the end of it and run your hands all over its shaft...Willsin Rowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07255684467269187446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-39791629905389406932017-07-29T22:45:56.887-04:002017-07-29T22:45:56.887-04:00Totes, man. Totes.Totes, man. Totes.Willsin Rowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07255684467269187446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-23484755664029504992017-07-29T14:12:10.342-04:002017-07-29T14:12:10.342-04:00Fag as a slang term for cigarettes was around for ...Fag as a slang term for cigarettes was around for a very long time, probably until the homophobic version came along. Or it may have died out before that, but I kept seeing it because I loved to read old British mysteries when I was a teenager. I assumed it came from the old term for small pieces of firewood, faggots, which makes a certain amount of sense--firesticks?--but I have no idea how both those words got the current connotation.<br /><br />(All this is spur-of-the-moment speculation, of course.) Sacchi Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801164916418570059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-38575777746911809402017-07-29T08:09:39.488-04:002017-07-29T08:09:39.488-04:00No, Willsin, you're good: changing "Fags&...No, Willsin, you're good: changing "Fags" to "Fads" is a <i>revision</i>, right? Right! (:v>Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.com