Archive for April, 2016

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WTF? headline omission

April 30, 2016

The original datum, from the SF Peninsula Daily Post for the April 30th weekend, on p. 1, printed here as a single line (rather than broken into three lines):

(1) Guard posted at crossing where woman killed

intended to convey something like

(1a) A guard has been posted at the crossing where a woman was killed

— where the omission in (1) of the underlined form of BE (in a subordinate passive clause) gave me an extended WTF? moment. Looking at parallel examples didn’t make me any happier. Maybe there are those for whom (1) and similar examples are unproblematic, but there is variation from speaker to speaker in all things, and in this case, (1) and its kin are problematic for me. Now, some background, then back to (1).

(more…)

Posted in Headlines, Style and register | 2 Comments »

The masturbation sleeve

April 30, 2016

(The subject line should warn readers about the content to follow. There will be linguistics, and also music, but there’s no denying the sexual content, which might make some readers uncomfortable.)

Yesterday, in talking about a comic in the first issue of the publication Meatmen, I noted that in this strip,

blow jobs (by mouth or Accu-Jac) and hand jobs abound

referring to an electrically-operated male masturbation device, via a trade name variously spelled (here, I used the spelling most familiar to me, but it seems that the trade name is, or at least was, Accujac). Much to talk about here — male masturbation devices, spellings, the name Accujac, the expression jack off, the noun orifice, and more. But, in recognition of recent events, I’ll start with Prince.

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language in advertising, Metaphor, Metonymy, Music, Names | Leave a Comment »

Just remove one letter

April 29, 2016

Some time ago, Tim Pierce passed along a game on Facebook: #RemoveOneLetterFromAMovieTitle. Example:

POTLIGHT: a plucky team of old-school journalists completely miss a major news story right under their noses because they spend most of their days stoned to the gills.

The original film title is SPOTLIGHT:

Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer. The film follows The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative journalist unit in the United States, and its investigation into cases of widespread and systemic child sex abuse in the Boston area by numerous Roman Catholic priests. (Wikipedia link)

The entries poured in, in a dizzying flood. Here’s a very small sample (of 16), with the names of the contributors (you’ll have to figure out the original movie titles on your own):

(more…)

Posted in Language play, Names | 1 Comment »

oo-(w)ee!

April 29, 2016

/ˌuˈ(w)i/, used as an exclamation. OED3 (Sept. 2013):

N.Amer. colloq. Expressing astonishment, admiration, dismay, etc. [first cite 1910]

(No one seems to have looked at actual usage in any detail — a tough task for colloquial expressions in general, but especially tough for exclamations.)

Why do I mention it? Because of my posting “sg /u/, pl /i/” a couple days ago — with sg / pl pairs involving these vowels, but also nonoccurring pairs like noose / neese. And then, in the April 2016 Funny Times, this Mark Stivers cartoon starting with the sg / pl pairs tooth / teeth and foot / feet, and then immediately branching off into silly play with pairs like toon / teen:

(more…)

Posted in Expressive language, Linguistics in the comics, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Meatmen 1989-2004

April 29, 2016

(The X-rated images are on AZBlogX, here, but let’s face it, the posting is about comics depicting man-man sex, and there’s plenty of explicit talk, so this is not for kids or the sexually modest.)

In between the Gay Comics compendium of 1989 and the recent Strippers compendium (2009), both discussed on this blog, there was 1989-2004, filled for comic-fan gay men by 26 issues of the book series Meatmen. Today, issue #1. Front and back:

(#1)

(#2)

(more…)

Posted in Books, Gender and sexuality, Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Names | 1 Comment »

Gay comics in the 21st century

April 28, 2016

(No actually X-rated images, but still not for kids or the sexually modest.)

A few days ago I looked at gay comics in the 70s and 80s, especially as represented in Robert Triptow’s volume:

The series [Gay Comix, begun by Howard Cruse] was continued by Robert Triptow, who edited the 1989 compilation Gay Comics: The Smartest and Wittiest Gay and Lesbian Cartoonists, with a broad coverage of relatively conventional single-panel and strip cartoons focused on humor or story-telling (leaving out material that is mostly visual and material that’s significantly lubricious.)

(So Tom of Finland doesn’t make this volume.) The contributors are both male and female, but all are North Americans writing in English.

Now comes the 2009 volume Stripped: A Story of Gay Comics, by Markus Pfalzgraf, with 13 cartoonists featured, plus a series of essays (in parallel English and German) on aspects of gay cartooning. The artists are all male, working in English, German, Dutch, and Japanese, and the subject matter is much more varied than in the earlier volume, taking in bondage, S&M, and other kinks, and indulging in piles of mansex for its own sake:

(#1)

(more…)

Posted in Books, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics | 1 Comment »

Bad bro days

April 28, 2016

The story of the address term bro in relatively recent years begins with its use by black men to black men, roughly (but not exactly) like the widely used American buddy — a term of male affiliation. It then spread into the wider culture, serving as a mark of male solidarity. This is what I called in a 4/12/16 posting “good”, positive, bro. But male solidarity tends to come with a dark side: rejection of anything perceived as feminine, played out as sturdy misogyny and homo-hatred in general; and the elevation of boys’ clubs (formed for whatever reasons) to boys-only clubs, aggressively hostile to women and to men perceived as inferior. When these guys use bro to address (or refer to) one another, then we’ve got what I called “bad”, negative, bro.

Regular use of bad bro between men in groups, for instance by fraternity boys and so-called brogrammers, has led to a steady pejoration of the term for people outside those male groups; bro is now a tainted term for many people, calling up unpleasant images of aggressive masculinity.

A brief review of these matters on this blog, then two recent entries in the conversation. And a cartoon too!

(more…)

Posted in Address terms, Language and gender, Linguistics in the comics, Portmanteaus, Slang | 1 Comment »

Sex comics: the kinksters

April 27, 2016

Continuing the sex comic theme from earlier postings (for instance, here and here), I turn to the raunchier side of the genre, where sexual fetishes play a significant role. As in gay porn films, this is the territory of serious leather, BDSM, watersports, domination and submission, etc. I won’t be actually depicting any of this here, but still the topic is not for kids or the sexually modest.

Four practitioners: Josman, who does some simple boy-on-boy sex, but specializes in intergenerational sex, with a lot of piss; the major daddy of rough graphic sex, Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen); and two seriously nasty dudes, Etienne (Dom Orejudos) and The Hun (Bill Schmeling). All have appeared on this blog or AZBlogX before.

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »

sg /u/, pl /i/

April 27, 2016

Recent One Big Happy, with Joe bedeviled by irregular plurals in English, especially in the sg /u/, pl /i/ pattern in goose – geese and tooth – teeth:

The morphophonological alternation has an interesting history, but from the point of view of modern speakers, it just is. One booth, two booths (not beeth), but one tooth, two teeth; one noose, two nooses (not neese), but one goose, two geese. And one Ruthie, two Ruthies (not Reethie).

Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Morphophonology | 1 Comment »

Ding Dong Deli

April 27, 2016

Today’s Zippy, which takes us to woodsy northern New Jersey (west of New York, east of Pennsylvania, south of Connecticut):

This is the alliterative Ding Dong Deli, a diner and shop, in Oak Ridge NJ (there is aso a Ding Dong Deli in Mahopac NY), naturally attractive to Zippy, who’s from Dingburg and who’s an enthusiast of Hostess snack products, especially Ding Dongs (see my 4/4/13 posting), as well as Ding Dong School and the song “Rama Lama Ding Dong”, both of which have been covered here.

Posted in Alliteration, Diners, Language play, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »

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