#62553
03/27/2002 12:20 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
thank-you-ma'am: A bump in a road.
[From the nod of the head that results when one passes over it in a vehicle, as if in an acknowledgment of a favor.]
Not to be too blue about this, but don't you think the meaning as a "bump" might come from the old phrase, "Wham, bam... thank you, ma'am" -- a slightly different form of acknowledgement of favor?
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#62554
03/27/2002 2:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Dear Keiva,
I like your suggestion regarding the derivation - a true colloquialism.
In the UK the same feature is termed a "sleeping policeman" and, together with sundry other markings on and deformities of the tarmac, is described as a "traffic calming" measure. Much more mundane.
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#62555
03/27/2002 8:04 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Ummmm....think a sleeping policeman is actually a little different from a thank-you-ma'am. There's a discussion about this on another thread (can't remember the name of it, sorry!) - about the difference between these two things and potholes. (Maybe do a search on "pothole" if you're interested.)
A thank-you-ma'am is not put in the road to "calm traffic" as a sleeping policeman is; nor is it quite a pothole. It's an unidentified ridge in the road.
I was on a tour bus in outback Oz when we went over a BIIIIG thank-you-ma'am. None of us tourists merely nodded as we went over it - we were all flung into the air and someone at the back of the bus actually landed on the floor and wound up with a serious bruise as a result, and someone else told me she thought I was going to go through the windscreen (I was riding shotgun at the time). I had not been wearing a seatbelt because the driver used to make fun of me when I reached for it. After that, I ignored the peer pressure and buckled up every time....!
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#62556
03/27/2002 11:29 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Thank-you-maams were so named in the horse and buggy 5 mph country road days, created when road scraper hit a stone it couldn't move. A phrase from that era in the Just So Stories was the "wait-a-bit thornbush."
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#62557
03/27/2002 11:38 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The little bunny was polite enough to say: Wham,bam, thank you ma'am. Until he encountered the stone bunny and changed to Wham bam God dam. Not so politely. Just goes to show introductions have their place. Reminds me of an old joke about girls from Boston.
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#62558
03/28/2002 10:45 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
the joke, sir?
oh good, this thread stands promise of getting feelthy.
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#62559
03/29/2002 1:18 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
A collegian named Ken from Chicago on a youth hostel summer in Europe spent quite a few nights in the arms of a beautiful Bostonienne. Shortly after his return to US, he transferred to Harvard, and went to visit her. The butler regretfully informed him that Miss Fiditch was not at home. But he heard her voice and forced his way in. The young lady denied knowing him, and asked him to leave. When he protested that they had slept together many times in Europe, she frostily replied that in Boston, sexual relations did not constitute a formal introduction.
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#62560
03/29/2002 1:25 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Dear Harvardite: Now you understand why I attended Yale.
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#62561
03/29/2002 1:28 AM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
Dear Harvardite: Now you understand why I attended Yale.
He said, not hostelly.
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#62562
03/29/2002 1:37 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
There were ways around Bostonian rigidity. A guy a couple years ahead of me had the first six passenger plane with auto pilot. Many a coed thought it something to boast about to have flown United over Boston.
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#62563
03/29/2002 1:47 AM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
There were ways around Bostonian rigidity.
Bostonian rigidity. Is that what you call it? [snickering-e]
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#62564
03/29/2002 2:18 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
A better word would have been frigidity.
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#62565
03/29/2002 2:55 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Angel, you naughty girl!
Reminds me of an expression taught me by a fellow single filly (not a fellow single fellow, because I am not a fellow and neither was she) (is this getting too ridiculous yet?!):
A hard man is good to find.
There, I said it, I couldn't help myself, now I am off to bed - alone. I miss Bostonian rigidity.... [naughty smirk-e]
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#62566
03/29/2002 3:09 AM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
A hard man is good to find.OOOOOOOOOOOOO....my favorite from dear Mae: " It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men" 
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#62567
03/30/2002 8:25 PM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
When I was a child, my dad used to take us all for Sunday drives. We would come to one of those mysterious dips in the road and we would all scream "Daddy, tickle our tummies!" Dad would give it the gas and we'd all lift a little in our seats, our tummies all aflutter. One of the really good memories. Thank you, er.....ma'am?
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