Re: Ear Wax? (was: More on WPTR)

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On 14 Jan 00,  Richard Chonak wrote:

> A data point: in New Hampshire in the '70s, high-schoolers would say
> that something unpleasant "sucks eggs".  The idea was that weasels
> suck eggs: thus "it sucks eggs" was a roundabout way to call something
> base.
> 
> If people think "sucks" has obscene connotations, the cause is more
> in the public's mind than in the original sense of the expression!
> Really this bit of slang is merely tasteless and silly, not
> borderline-obscene.  
 
When I was in high school, in the late 50s and early 60s, "sucks" meant 
what it meant in the Watergate-era bumpersticker "Impeach the Cox-Sacker." 
If anyone said it meant "sucks eggs" in the 70s, I think that was more 
likely a euphemism.  Rather like when "snafu" is said to mean 'Situation 
Normal, All =Fouled= Up."  In school, it probably was a useful way to get 
out of trouble if a teacher caught someone saying "sucks." 

or perhaps a way to get out of trouble if  a teacher caught someone saying 
"sucks."  


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