4.1163 This Really is the End of "Mother of" (4/51)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 14 Mar 91 18:43:23 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 1163. Thursday, 14 Mar 1991.
(1) Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 18:46:30 EST (9 lines)
From: markt@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Turner)
Subject: Arsenio Hall and Mother Of
(2) Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 17:02 EST (17 lines)
From: <JFCOVALE@SUNRISE>
Subject: "muthah"
(3) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 91 13:19 CST (14 lines)
From: Bill Sjostrom
Subject: The mother of all footnotes
(4) Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 18:00:51 CST (11 lines)
From: Marcus Smith <SMITHM@LOYNOVM>
Subject: Re: 4.1151 The Final Words on `Mother' (3/58)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 18:46:30 EST
From: markt@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Turner)
Subject: Arsenio Hall and Mother Of
Arsenio Hall tells a joke in which Saddam Hussein
now sells slurpies on a beach in Southern California
(my own homeland). He is asked what sizes they come in,
and responds "small, medium, large, and the
mother of all slurpies."
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 17:02 EST
From: <JFCOVALE@SUNRISE>
Subject: "muthah"
Humanists-
It seems to me that Steve Mason's comments about the ease with which "Mother
of..." translates in to "muthah" points very directly to the dangers of taking
deconstruction seriously. Our sense of 'Muthah" is, quite beyond question,
*not* the meaning of the message at all, and if that is what we hear, we
seriously mis-take what is said to us. So, if the point is that it is possible
for us to be seriously mistaken in matters of translation (or any other
communication), of course that is true. But the message to me is that we must
pay close attention not just to the *text* qua text, but also as the attempt
of *this person* to communicate something.
John F. Covaleskie
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 91 13:19 CST
From: Bill Sjostrom
Subject: The mother of all footnotes
Although I have nothing to add to the origin of the expression
"the mother of", I have found a reference to the mother of all
footnotes. In June of 1950, Jacob Viner, a professor of economics
at Princeton and most likely the finest economist of this century,
gave a commencement address at Brown University, in which, noting
the practice of undue footnoting, mentioned a book by Christopher
Walton, published in 1854, titled "Notes and Materials for an
Adequate Biography of the Celebrated Divine and Theosopher,
William Law." It has a footnote that extends from page 334 to
page 628.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 18:00:51 CST
From: Marcus Smith <SMITHM@LOYNOVM>
Subject: Re: 4.1151 The Final Words on `Mother' (3/58)
The Arabists are correct about intent, I think, but Steve Mason's
comments are closer to what this metaphor conjures in many of our
minds. There's an interesting discussion of "Mother-Fucker" in
the journal Maledicta of a few years back. It seems the term may
have referred to the madam of a brothel. Those who had acess to her
favors were "Real Mothers." The term is still used in some quarters
as a marker of sexual and other "manly" prowess.