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AWADmail Issue 566

From: Dermot Moriarty (dmoriarty safefood.eu)
Subject: New definition of mojo

I attended a media conference last week in Dublin, Ireland. One of the speakers was the editor of one of our national newspapers -- he used the term 'mojo' to describe the new breed of print journalists for the 21st century; who write their own copy, often take their own pictures and frequently upload it directly to the newspapers' websites -- they are MO-bile JOurnalists or mojos. Personally, I prefer your definition!

From: Andrea Moss (milesah20 hotmail.com)
Subject: re: mojo

The word mojo was posted all over Seattle a few years ago. It's our baseball team's slogan. The Mariner's stadium is south of downtown (sodo). So all over Seattle, there were signs announcing SODO Mojo!.

From: Kaitlin Kemp (littlebird.kemp gmail.com)
Subject: Mojo

Mojo in certain countries is also a delicious sauce made with oil, fruit juice, garlic, and spices. I made some yesterday in my Spanish class, as a dressing for fried plantain chips, but ended up putting it on everything else as well. Although I have little idea if I did it right, I have to say it was an awesome sauce.

From: H.M. Krisch (kriburg gmail.com)
Subject: Mojo

I first encountered the word mojo in the early 1970s in various rants by Hunter S. Thompson who used "mojo machine" or "mojo wire" as his name for the then relatively new fax machine. HST apparently claimed to have invented this magical name for the fax which may or may not be true. More certainly, he was the first to implement the original and interesting practice of just shooting the mojo machine with a large bore pistol to prevent it from transmitting further annoying and unwanted magic.

From: Ted Zahn (ted zahns.us)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--boondocks

Like a considerate call from a old friend, I daily welcome your AWAD. I enjoy the tickle of a gray cell or two, that today, too often goes ignored.

Some days I feel the warm assurance that I have picked up a few things, and on other days I recognize that even while I have lived long and even paid attention for much of that time -- I still have not heard it all (or at least have forgotten some of it).

This morning was a little different.

As a son of a WWII veteran, the term boondocks was a term very familiar to us, so when it arrived in AWAD, it was as if that old friend had tossed a pebble at my mind's window.

What I did not expect was to connect the dots from my childhood to my adulthood and between my US Navy boots ("boondockers" or the more familiar "boondocks" for short) and the location of part of my Vietnam era service: the Philippines. While there, I picked up some Tagalog, but missed the connection until you made it for me today. For that I say, salamat po!

From: Ken Doran (kendoran execpc.com)
Subject: boondocks

Down In the Boondocks was a hit song on the American charts in 1965. (video).

From: Chris Brown (chris.brown laposte.net)
Subject: gam

Never heard of gam for a leg but to have a gammy leg in Britain is frequent. The American equivalent would be to have a gimpy leg. I think it comes from 'game' which as an adjective also means 'lame'.

As far as gam is concerned, here in France we have the familiar expression gambette usually used for a woman's leg and generally for a pretty one.

From: Mary Hill (jasaala aol.com)
Subject: Gam

My mother, born in 1917, was not allowed to use the word leg as a child, as it was considered dirty by her mother, and, apparently, those of the day. Instead, the proper term was gam. It mattered not whether it was the leg of a lady, a chicken or a horse. While she did pass along her aversion to red food-coloring because of the toxic ingredients from which it was made when she and her mother were young, she did not continue to spurn the usage of the word leg.

From: Iain Stewart (iaindstewart yahoo.com)
Subject: Gam

This can be a very rude word in Scots English.

From: Rudy Rosenberg Sr (RRosenbergSr accuratechemical.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--gam

I was first introduced to the word around 1955 when Rita Gam had a respectable run in the movies. A quick look in the dictionary confirmed that Rita Gam was perfect, not only in her gams but for her entire anatomy. I seem to recall that the term gams was a favorite gangster word uttered at least once by George Raft. I thought (erroneously) that this was a clever movie name. Ms. Gam had the distinction of having been "killed" by Jack Palance in one of the biblical epics.

Thank you for reminding me of an attraction to a 15-year-old.

It was the movie Saving Private Ryan that introduced me to gam.

There is a scene in SPR in which the squad runs up against a German radar site and loses a couple of men in the ensuing firefight. In the aftermath, one of the German soldiers, now as a POW, is forced to dig a grave apparently for himself. In view of his anticipated execution, he begins a stumbling rendition of the National Anthem and then expresses his admiration for Betty Grable and her "nice gams" (video). Such are the strange places in which our language is cultivated!

From: Jim Scarborough (jimes hiwaay.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--mammonism

From: David Mezzera (DaMezz comcast.net)
Subject: Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes's seventeenth century work, commonly referred to as The Leviathan, argues for a social contract by the populace and rule by an absolute sovereign. After today's entry, I can now understand the illusion of the sovereign to the monster and the creature's qualities!

From: M Henri Day (mhenriday gmail.com)
Subject: leviathan