"For the fantastic/alarming visual alone, I'm going to give that SW corner the 'Best SW Corner Of All Time' award. … The only thing I'd change about that corner is the "G" in GIMPS. I get that it's supposed to add (I think) to the overall mildly perverted feel of that corner (insofar as 'GIMPS' reminds me of 'The Gimp' from 'Pulp Fiction'), but it's a borderline offensive word (making it a verb doesn't really change that). I'd actually prefer PIMPS there, though I somehow doubt that would fly in the NYT. LIMPS or SIMPS works too. But this is hardly that important. What's important is MALE NUDE PHONE SEX SANTA HAT. *That* is a jolly good time. It's like the rest of the puzzle barely exists..."
From Rex Parker's discussion of yesterday's NYT crossword.
11 comments:
That's twice now that my Rex Parker and Ann Althouse worlds have crossed. I'm worried that I am in danger of crossing the streams.
This is my first Althouse/Rex xing.
Weird.
"What's four letters starting and ending with 'd' describing Will Weng?"
- Imus, on the death of NYT crossword puzzle author Will Weng.
'The Gimp' from 'Pulp Fiction'
Thanks for an even more fightening mental image.
Wimps.
I call coded sexism on Parker's post.
I refuse to think that word picture!
What size was the Santa again?
I don't think you should use borderline offensive words. They're just gateway words to the really offensive words that we never ever use. Just because.
I read Rex's Pop Sensation blog (on pulp covers) almost as often as I read Althouse. So glad I'm not alone.
From the OED, on "gimp":
A lame person, a cripple; a lame leg; a limp. Also as v., to limp, hobble (1961 in Webster).
1925 Flynn's 31 Jan. 306/2 Gimp, a lame leg.
1929 New Yorker 9 Feb. 38/1 Eat-'em-up Jack McManus would never hit a cripple. He'd just kick a gimp in the good leg and leave him lay.
1931 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) viii. 160 She walks with a gimp in one leg, which is why she is called Madame la Gimp.
1969 P. Craig Gate of Ivory (1970) xii. 161, I gimped back on deck.
Nope.
I've been on the internets a long time and my brain has established some protective measures, one of which is don't visualize until you decide to.
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