#63672
04/05/2002 3:55 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 |
"Ode to Four Letter Words", a lovely song, at http://home.hawaii.rr.com/kingcharles/Humor/ode-4.htmof which there are many variations. With reference to mod-god's particular ... er, "point", see verse 6, ending with the caution: But, friend, heed this warning, beware the affront
Of aping a Saxon: don't call it a [expletive deleted].
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#63673
04/05/2002 4:11 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 |
Dear Keiva: Your AngloSaxon "c" word reminded me of place called "Love Canal" that was in news over ten years ago because of massive pollution. I wonder how that name was chosen: innocently, or slyly lasciviously?
Which reminds me of etymology of "lewd", which originally meant the way common folk talked.
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#63674
04/05/2002 5:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
There's a place in Indiana called "French Lick." I've never been there, but it sounds delicious.
k
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#63675
04/05/2002 5:25 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
isn't a place, it's a sentence.
TEd
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#63676
04/05/2002 5:36 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 |
Forty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
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#63677
04/05/2002 5:43 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
back to that pleasure-dome:
I don't know how common this interpretation is, but my teacher last year explained it as a metaphor for artistic success. Xanadu, an idyllic, imaginative world, is Kubla Kahn's success--the domain he created. It relates to Coleridge's desire to be as successful as Wordsworth, to create his own pleasure dome, an artisitc legacy. There are many terms that relate to art, music or imagination: "damsel with a dulcimer", "symphony and song", "music loud and long" and "that dome in air."
Some hard rock type band made a song called Xanadu that relates to this interpretation.
But I guess it could just be about sex . . .
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#63678
04/05/2002 5:53 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
"French Lick Indiana" sounds like a headline on the sports page describing a contest which the Hoosiers lost. Then again I am a Kentucky fan, and IU went farther/further [there it is again!) than UK this year, so I shouldn't poke too much fun. Besides, here in Kentucky we have a state park called "Big Bone Lick State Park." I kid you not. Check it out at:
http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/parks/bigbone.htm
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#63679
04/05/2002 6:02 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Are actually places where natural salt (primarily NaCl) occurs in the ground and where animals come to lick the salt up.
TEd
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#63680
04/05/2002 6:14 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
And the game laws in many states make it illegal to put out salt block licks to entice deer, even though deer are getting to be a nuisance, dropping Lyme disease ticks where small children acquire them.
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#63681
04/05/2002 6:28 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 |
TEd's point is in fact precisely the origin of the name of French Lick, Indiana (which, as sparteye doubtless already knows, is the hometown of Larry Bird).
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#63682
04/06/2002 12:24 AM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 104
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 104 |
euphemistically speaking
Some of the best euphemisms are lauded as "doublespeak", dear wwh. My favourite: Remember when the American Embassy in Teheran was beseiged by murderous mobs and President Carter dispatched a fleet of helicopters from the desert to rescue the Americans trapped there. The helicopters crashed into one another on take-off and the mission ended in a self-propelled sandstorm. Afterwards, President Carter described the rescue mission as an "incomplete success".
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#63683
04/06/2002 12:54 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
Heck, I'm from KY originally and I never hearduvit.
So we have a cooler placename than the Hoosiers. Great!
k
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#63684
04/06/2002 1:41 AM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
Your AngloSaxon "c" word reminded me of place called "Love Canal" that was in news over ten years ago because of massive pollution. I wonder how that name was chosen: innocently, or slyly lasciviously?"Love Canal" is a place close to my heart. I grew up just 10 miles from this place whose toxins killed and maimed so many. It was named in 1896 for William Love who dug the ditch that later became the resting place for barrels, and barrels of toxins that seeped into the ground. http://www.iprimus.ca/~spinc/atomcc/lovecana.htm
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#63685
04/06/2002 12:24 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
too delicate to bring these up
I thnk that, perhaps, rather than delicate, the words tasteful or considerate might better serve.
of course [Eris] feel[s] no such scruples
Of course.
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#63686
04/07/2002 5:23 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
From Forthright:
paranym: euphemism; word whose meaning is altered to conceal evasion
Your Happy Epeolatrist!
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#63687
04/10/2002 4:20 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
At Keiva's request, all I can think of in the way of you-feminisms:
beaver
muff
muffin
the Y
map of Tasmania (my personal fave!)
lower lips
bush
pussy
Wow, I'm stuck already. Why are there so many more names for boys's toys?!
call me immodestgoddess
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#63688
04/10/2002 11:18 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 |
A variant closing-stanza of the ode to which I linked above (my favorite part being emphasized):
So we banish the words that Elizabeth used
When she was Queen Virgin and itched on her throne.
The Modern Maid's virtue is easily bruised
Upon meeting the four-letter words on their own.
Let your morals be loose as an alderman's vest
If your language be weaseling, vague and obscure:
Today not the act but the word is the test
Of the vulgar, salacious, obscene and impure.
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#63689
04/10/2002 11:25 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
I came up with a list of about 10 more, then took to the web. Found this: http://www.sheloveshertoys.com/words/words.htmlThere's a lot more than I thought. Reminds me. There used to be a strip club in Anchorage called "The Great Alaskan Bush Company." I've never been there (I lived in Fairbanks and I was underage at the time), but a friend brought me a T-shirt which I never had the cajones to wear. (My brother did, though, for years.) My favorite word for it is "quim," but I rarely have occasion to use it. Besides which it seems to have fallen out of use (the appellation, not the item). I've heard that Brits say 'fanny,' but I've never heard one use it except parenthetically. There was this Aussie guy I knew who had a strange word for it that I always chuckled at, but I can't remember what it was. (Never met an Aussie in person I didn't like very much. The ones I've known take teasing very well and give at least as good as they get - usually much better.) Ah, well. I was hoping it would come to me, but I guess not. This was about 30 years ago. I was about 10 or 11 at the time and I remember thinking it was pretty funny. OTOH, 10 year olds have a pretty low threshhold for humor. (Well, I did when I was 10.) k
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#63690
04/10/2002 11:34 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 |
10 year olds have a pretty low threshhold for humor. (Well, I did when I was 10.)
Two sayings come to mind:
May you stay forever young, FF.
A dirty mind is a perpetual feast.
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#63691
04/10/2002 11:38 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 |
One term overlooked by FF's lovely link: movable feast
[my alliterative adjective intentional]
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#63692
04/10/2002 2:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Here is an excerpt from a trial transcript ....
Q. OK. Do you have a term that you use with the children in reference to a woman's genital area?
A. Usually kitty.
Q. OK, and does your husband have a term that he uses in reference to a woman's genital area?
A. Same thing.
Q. And the same question in regard to a male's genital area?
A. I've always taught the boys it was a lala.
Q. How about your husband?
A. Same thing.
Q. A what, again?
A. Lala.
Q. Your husband talked about calling it a peepee or something like that.
A. Yeah.
Q. Did the kids refer to genital areas, have you heard the kids refer to genital areas by use of that term?
A. Very seldom. Usually they call it a penis.
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#63693
04/10/2002 2:31 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 etymology of some euphemisms are hard to discover. I have always remembered my mother referring to my penis when I was very small, just beginning to learn words, as my "bottee"
Only quite recently did I realize that it was a corruption of the the word for sausage "L. botulus".
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#63694
04/10/2002 4:01 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 31
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 31 |
have always remembered my mother referring to my penis when I was very small, just beginning to learn words, as my "bottee"
There would have been major confusion in our house where a "bottee" was on the other side - obviously a diminutive form of bottom.
Who remembers a old LP (Small Faces?) where a narrator voice asks if we are all sitting comfortably "four-square on your bottees"? It perfectly describes the way my fat, short-legged Jack Russell sits up on her hind quarters when she begs.
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#63695
04/10/2002 5:02 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
FF's link to sheloveshertoys is very interesting, isn't it? because they have a LOT more euphemisms for female genitalia than for male - they don't even have all the Monty Python song's list under the latter category.
I was interested to see that they classed each word/term, as well. How do they decide what is slang and what is vulgar slang? what is poetic/spiritual as opposed to slang? I noticed that "vertical smile" counts as "vulgar slang" - and yet I would've just called it slang - and jolly slang at that! I mean, it sounds friendly-like and inviting....
I wish I could find a copy of Billy Connolly's monologue on the names of genitalia....He talks about penis and vagina as if they were places to go on holiday: "Vagina sounds like a lovely place to visit - well, it IS! - but it sounds like some sunny place with a beach and blue skies....But penis! Remember Penis? it rained all the time and we got mugged...." (something along those lines anyway....!)
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#63696
04/11/2002 6:34 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 31
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 31 |
I find some euphemisms for death to be pretty annoying. "He passed" has to be the worst. And yet some of them are funny, such as "He joined the majority."
I like "He popped his clogs". Anyone have any idea of its origins?
Have also heard "hopped the perch".
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#63697
04/11/2002 6:49 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Henry Miller's expression for the vagina, "abricot-fondu", is rather enchanting. It brings multiple images to the mind.
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#63698
04/11/2002 6:53 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 31
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 31 |
What about all the euphemisms for getting or being pregnant (many of them very contemptuous of women)?
in the family way
knocked up
up the pole
bun in the oven
eating for two
soon to hear the patter of little feet
This euphemism in limerick form was the lemma to a chapter in a computer language textbook I studied decades ago:
There was a young lady from Thrace
Whose corsets grew too tight to lace.
Her mother said: Nelly,
There's more in your belly
Than ever went in through your face!
I have long forgotten the relevance to what I was studying. But my surprise at finding it in such an unlikely place has helped me remember the verse ever since.
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#63699
04/17/2002 12:35 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 |
WARNING: Politically Incorrect I just now received an e-mail that fits well under this subject -- and is an equal-opportunity slammer.
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT WOMEN AND BE POLITICALLY CORRECT:
1. She is not a babe or a chick - She is a BREASTED AMERICAN.
2. She is not a screamer or moaner - She is VOCALLY APPRECIATIVE.
3. She is not easy - She is HORIZONTALLY ACCESSIBLE.
4. She is not dumb - She is a DETOUR OFF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.
5. She has not been around - She is a PREVIOUSLY ENJOYED COMPANION.
6. She is not an airhead - She is REALITY IMPAIRED.
7. She does not get drunk or tipsy - She gets CHEMICALLY INCONVENIENCED.
8. She is not horny - She is SEXUALLY FOCUSED.
9. She does not have breast implants - She is MEDICALLY ENHANCED.
10. She does not nag you - She becomes VERBALLY REPETITIVE.
11. She is not a slut - She is SEXUALLY EXTROVERTED.
12. She does not have major league hooters - She is PECTORALLY SUPERIOR.
13. She is not a two-bit whore - She is a LOW COST PROVIDER.
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT MEN AND BE POLITICALLY CORRECT
1. He does not have a beer gut - He has developed a LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY.
2. He is not a bad dancer - He is OVERLY CAUCASIAN.
3. He does not get lost all the time - He INVESTIGATES ALTERNATIVE DESTINATIONS.
4. He is not balding - He is in FOLLICLE REGRESSION.
5. He is not a cradle robber - He prefers GENERATIONALLY DIFFERENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS.
6. He does not get falling-down drunk - He becomes ACCIDENTALLY HORIZONTAL.
7. He does not act like a total ass - He develops a case of RECTAL-CRANIAL INVERSION.
8. He is not a male chauvinist pig - He has SWINE EMPATHY.
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#63700
04/17/2002 2:33 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Speaking (writing/typing) as a vocally appreciative, sexually focused, breasted, ahem, Canadian, I would like to publicly deplore the antics of overly Caucasian men who have liquid grain storage facilities and prefer generationally different relationships. (In brief: why do they always hit on ME?!)   
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#63701
04/17/2002 2:12 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131
member
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member
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131 |
Wasn't it Blondie that had an album (dating myself...) named 'Xanadu'? Was there a connection here?
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#63702
04/17/2002 6:10 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 322
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 322 |
I think you're thinking of Olivia Newton-John - a blonde, but no Blondie
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#63703
04/17/2002 7:00 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131
member
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member
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131 |
You know, I started typing ONJ - but thought to myself, "Nahhhhhhh, surely it was someone flashier than she". Thanks for the correction.
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#63704
04/18/2002 1:15 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477
addict
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addict
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Posts: 477 |
You know, I started typing ONJ - but thought to myself, "Nahhhhhhh, surely it was someone flashier than she".
Hey Chemeng... haven't seen ya round for a while. Good to see you back and posting ... However (she says with a smile) surely you jest about Australia's national icon. Who could be flashier than our ONJ? 
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#63705
04/18/2002 1:22 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#63706
04/18/2002 3:17 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477 |
>Who could be flashier than our ONJ?
Dame Edna?
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#63707
04/18/2002 8:34 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Who could be flashier than our ONJ?
Pokes head above parapet…….
Kylie?
……ducks back, just ahead of missiles.
dxb.
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#63708
04/18/2002 2:20 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Australia's national icon
Oblivious Neutron-Bomb is the Oz Icon? Was she born in Poughkeepsie?
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#63709
04/19/2002 2:28 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 45
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 45 |
wwh:
Here you will also hear the aforementioned gonads less chastely referred to as "wedding tackle".
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#63710
04/19/2002 4:08 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131
member
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member
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131 |
Oblivious Neutron-Bomb
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The whole 'Grease' acting gig just kills any 'flashy' descriptive that could have ever been attributed to ONJ. Ack!
(Thanks hev for the welcome back). Now that college basketball is over my websurfing goes beyond espn.com and fightingillini.com.
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