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Usenet Posted 21 years ago
Usage

How To Give Head

When it Italy, on the first day of my tour, the tour guide woman ("Big Momma") was explaining things about the bus we'd be using. She told us there was a bathroom underneath the back set of steps, where the emergency exit was, yada, yada, yada...
But the most intriguing thing she said was about a hammer that they kept on the bus. She told us that we shouldn't worry if we were in the back of the bus and saw a hammer. Its purpose was "not to give each other the head", but it was there in case we needed to break a window.

Some people laughed when she said this; I think more so at the Freudian slip than her gay joke. I smiled, thinking it was amazingly bizarro.
Now...up till this point, I've always assumed that she was using some sort of variation on "hitting on the head". From what I had remembered of Spanish, they don't say, "I hit you on the head with the bat", but "I gave you the head with the bat", or "I gave the bat your head", or something like that...??? They also don't say, "I cut my arm" or "I hit my arm"; they say "I cut myself", as we do, "I cut myself the arm" or "I hit myself the arm", or something like that.

They basically don't use the "my" because it's implied by the reflexive form of the verb, so "I cut my arm" and "I cut the arm (of something/someone else)" has the exact same three words, but with a different conjugation of the verb (either reflexive or not".
SO..."hitting yourself on the head" would be same as "hitting (something) on the head", or, in the case of the Romance languages, using the hammer to "give yourself (someone else) the head". Am I right so far?
Is it possible that she was just applying this sort of logic to the American language? Or could it be that it was a combination of that as well as possibly knowing what "giving head" means? It seems that if she had any idea what "giving head" was in English, though, that she'd be careful to avoid making slip-up's about giving head. Still, when I learned Spanish and Italian, I never rememeber thinking that this "give someone the something" construction could ever cause such a problem. So...what gives?
Comments?
P.S., off topic, but I am listening to AOL radio, the remix station, and they are playing the Phillip Steir remix of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride". Is Steppenwolf the same band who did "Born To Be Wild", or am I confused? Are they a 1-hit-wonder or a 2-hit-wonder?

Comments Jr?
  

Top answer

, off topic, but I am listening to AOL radio, the remix station, and they are playing the Phillip Steir ... the same band who did "Born To Be Wild", or am I confused? " John Kay was the lead singer.

  • , off topic, but I am listening to AOL radio, the remix station, and they are playing the Phillip Steir ...
  • the same band who did "Born To Be Wild", or am I confused?
  • " John Kay was the lead singer.
  • The had at least seven LPs (including "Steppenwolf 7"), and songs you might have run into in addition to "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Born to be Wild" include (some are covers) "Sookie, Sookie" "Don't Step on the Grass, Sam" "The Pusher" "Rock Me" "Move Over" "Tenderness" "Monster" "Hootchie Kootchie Man" "Children of the Night" "Jupiter's Child" "Circles of Confusion" "Another's Lifetime" "Skullduggery" "A Girl I Knew" "Berry Rides Again" "Fool's Fantasy" "Snowblind Friend" "All I Want Is All You Got" "Everybody's Next One" "Five Finger Discount" You know I smoked a lot of grass.
  • Oh Lord!
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32 Answers
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[nq:1]P.S., off topic, but I am listening to AOL radio, the remix station, and they are playing the Phillip Steir ... the same band who did "Born To Be Wild", or am I confused? Are they a 1-hit-wonder or a 2-hit-wonder?[/nq]
Yes, Steppenwolf (originally The Sparrow) did "Born to be Wild." John Kay was the lead singer. The had at least seven LPs (including "Steppenwolf 7"), and songs you might
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[nq:1]When it Italy, on the first day of my tour, the tour guide woman .. But the most intriguing thing ... "not to give each other the head", but it was there in case we needed to break a window.. Comments?[/nq]
I have no Romance-English comparative grammar insight to offer. I do think a nonnative English speaker can avoid this kind of problem by choosing to speak at first in the most general
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This song is about heroin as an evil compared to those drugs popular with hippies. Heroin wasn't popular with them, and this song somewhat preaches to the choir.
In strict and original use, a pusher deals in heroin. A dealer of another type of illegal drug would have another job title. The spread of drug abuse to a large group of people in the US counterculture era blurred some of the
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[nq:1]Yes, Steppenwolf (originally The Sparrow) did "Born to be Wild." John Kay was the lead singer. The had at least ... into in addition to "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Born to be Wild" include (some are covers) "Children of the Night"[/nq]
A cover of the Wayne Shorter tune? I'm assuming not.

Steny '08!
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[nq:2]P.S., off topic, but I am listening to AOL radio, ... am I confused? Are they a 1-hit-wonder or a 2-hit-wonder?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes, Steppenwolf (originally The Sparrow) did "Born to be Wild."John Kay was the lead singer. The had at least seven ... **** the pusher man! (1) When my band covered this, we always sang "with the love of grassin his hand."[/nq]
I don't get what that's supposed
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[nq:1]... This song is about heroin as an evil compared to those drugs popular with hippies. Heroin wasn't popular with ... Nowdays the job title for a peddler of illegal drugs is simply "dealer" for all types. There's my usage comment.[/nq]
OMG! You top posted! OMG! OMG!!! Anyways, according to the ghetti of the 00's, "pusher" can mean ANY kind of shady drug dealer type thing. "I'm your pushe
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[nq:1]It is irrelevant whether "head" here refers to the head of any human or the head of the hammer. It ... the head of the hammer. In no way was it ever necessary for the tour guide tospecify "head" at all.[/nq]
But, that's the thing. She was TRYING to make a joke. Not a sexual joke, which is what she inadvertently ended up doing, but just a silly sort of joke. The reason she mentioned "head
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[nq:1]****, your musicians were bigger stoners than our rappers, with the Dylan song about needing to get stoned, Eric Clapton's "Cocaine", and the other one that's chorus is all about doing drugs.[/nq]
YngJoE = TCE?

Steny '08!
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Ah, that reminds me.
I have a very rare phrasebook:
"What to say, and how to say it, in Catish".
One of the entries is: 'Please give head'.
Jan
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[nq:1]But the most intriguing thing she said was about a hammer that they kept on the bus. She told us ... this; I think more so at the Freudian slip than her gay joke. I smiled, thinking it was amazingly bizarro.[/nq]
You'd find the Irish (British, too?) expression "I'll knock you up" equally so.

Charles Riggs
There are no accented letters in my email address

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