Recently come past me, two metaphorical uses of wolf (and wolf-related vocabulary) that get their punch from common lore about wolves and their behavior: one from a particular sociocultural context in which men have sex with other men; one from a different particular sociocultural context in which men relate socially to women and other men. The first context is from working-class Harlem of the 1920s; the second from recent alpha male self-help / self-improvement literature aimed at striving American middle-class, largely professional, men.
The first case, which involves labels for particular categories of male-male sexuality, will require some care, since the labels are so bound to specific contexts and are mostly drawn from ordinary language, but used in specialized ways. You might appreciate this last point better when I tell you that a rough synonym for the 20s Harlem male-male label wolf was man — which obviously must in this context be understood as metaphorical (some males in this context were men; other males were either punks or fairies); more on these label vs. category complexities below.
The title of the first book of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s monumental 4-volume work Mythologiques — a title that served as the model for the title of my posting yesterday, “The hairy and the smooth” (referring to male body types) — one of three conceptual oppositions treated in that posting, the other two being raw – refined (referring to crudeness, naturalness, or simplicity vs. artfulness, in the presentation of these bodies in underwear ads) and authentic – synthetic (referring to natural materials, like leather, vs. various imitations, mostly based on plastics, in the garments the models are wearing).
Yesterday’s Zippy strip has Zippy and Griffy falling into a delirium of word attraction, savoring a smorgasbord of colorful synonyms, plundering the Rogetian treasures:
(#1)
592 is the compendium section of Peter Mark Roget’s 1852 Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. If we’re to trust Bill Griffith, the 1st edition had numbered subsections, and 592.4 had the words thesaurus, index, archive, and idioticon (yes, idioticon; see below). The successor edition that I have (the 4th, billed as “Americanized”) has a quite different 592, focused on words for abbreviated compendia, like resumé and summary — but the volume does have the word thesaurus, in four different sections. Details below, after I give you some background.
(Plain talk about sex toys for men and about male genitalia, so not for kids or the sexually modest. )
A Daily Jocks mailing back on 2/9 offers a novel solution to creating visually interesting ads for sex toys for men (primarily aimed at gay men) — devices designed to improve sexual performance or to provide solitary sexual pleasure (genital or anal), and in themselves not offering much to look at. The ads are playful, purely symbolic, takes on male genitalia.
The 2/9 mailing (“MACHO TOYS IS HERE”) has three images, the first two playful, the third with an image of an electronic toy.
From Steven Levine on Facebook yesterday, some astonishment at getting a targeted ad for
Levi’s® Premium 501® ’93 STRAIGHT MEN’S JEANS
Well, yes, it’s just a familiar sort of structural ambiguity: X Y Z as
[X + Y] + Z ( [straight men’s] [jeans] ‘jeans for straight men’) (A)
or X + [Y + Z] ( [straight] [men’s jeans] ‘men’s jeans that are straight’ (B)
(where the Adj straight in (B) is a truncation of straight-fit / straight-leg ‘straight-legged’, while the Adj straight in (A) is a rough synonym of heterosexual)
The Levis people had (B) in mind, But Steven and I, as gay men, immediately perceived (A), straight vs.gay being especialy salient for us, so we found the ad hilarious, wondering just what sort of purity test would be applied before guys were allowed ro buy the jeans.
My 7/27/19 posting “Avocado Chronicles: 7 “eatable only as a salad”” explored guacamole as a salad version of the avocado (which one early informant viewed as inedible in any other form).
From that posting:
(#1) Guacamole as a dip; but you can see how it could work as a salad
The dish is sometimes described as a salad, but its standard use these days is as a dipspread. In my 10/13/13 posting “More dipspreads”, see the section on guacamole.
To recap: on the notion of a dipspread, and on uses of dipspreads as salads. Then: on a class of dishes — bound salads, with egg salad as an example — that are akin to dipspreads used as salads. And then on to avocado salads that are salad salads.
Yesterday’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro, with songs you just can’t get out of your head:
(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 6 in this strip — see this Page.)
A wonderful collision of worlds, set off by the idiomatic (and colorfully metaphorical) N + N compound earworm: the world of DJs — the ear world (disc jockeys providing sonic pleasures for the ear) — and the world of caterpillars — the worm world (caterpillars being one type of worm in colloquial English).
(All I need to tell you is that this posting takes off from a line of Cumdump jockstraps offered by the Breedwell company in deliberately provocative ads, and you should see that it’s totally not for kids or the sexually modest.)
A Daily Jocks ad from 11/4/19 shows us the jock in red, with a model presented faux-naturalistically as a tough working-class guy in a blue-collar setting (a railyard, shipyard, or truckyard). Ad copy for the jock:
The new Breedwell Cumdump Jock [available in white, black, red, yellow, and blue] is a take on the classic, old-school woven jock.
Features a black centre patch with the Breedwell logo and signature “Dirty By Choice” motto. The back of the jock features ‘Breedwell’ across the entire back.
Today’s Zippy, set in Zippy’s fantasy-fulfillment dream diner, Zippy Food, which serves all his favorite foods, in combinations that especially appeal to him:
(#1)
Two things: the food combos; food establishments called Zippy or Zippy’s. We will end up in Honolulu.
A usage that was new to me, suddenly George Floyd-prominent in the news. Two examples, with the usage boldfaced:
— “Watch: ‘Black Lives Matter’ mural painted on streets leading to White House”, caption for an NBC News video accompanying the story “D.C. Mayor Bowser has ‘Black Lives Matter’ painted on street leading to White House: The act was intended to honor protesters who had peacefully assembled earlier this week” by Rebecca Shabad and Dartunorro Clarkon on 6/5/20.
— from the Valley News Live site (KVLY-TV, Red River Valley News in Fargo ND): “DC paints huge Black Lives Matter mural near White House”, with this photo from CNN:
(#1)
Murals usually go on walls. This one — surprise — is on a roadway.
