From: pauli@sgi.com (Paul Isaacs)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Ball Snaps and Calla Lillies, and a game.
Date: 2 Sep 92 01:14:23 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics

In article <la5qi1INN5g5@mizar.usc.edu> adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson) writes:
>In article <p9k6ajc@fido.asd.sgi.com> 
>pauli@sgi.com (Paul Isaacs) writes:
>> In article <la5g2gINN3ab@mizar.usc.edu> 
>> adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson) writes:
>> >In article <p9cqsi0@fido.asd.sgi.com> 
>> >pauli@uniblab.asd.sgi.com (Paul Isaacs) writes:
>> >> So we watched the movie "Stage Door" this weekend.  Great flick.  
>> >> Lucille Ball, Katheryn Hepburn, Eve Arden, Ginger Rogers, and more.
>> >
>> >Katharine Hepburn.  She's *very* sensitive about the spelling
>> >of her name.
>>
>> Ah, so *THAT'S* why she stopped inviting me over for cocktails.
>
>It was the final straw, dearest.

Well, I can't help it if everyone would go to her house and then talk
only to ME.

>> >> [1] I distinctly saw Lucille Ball *snap* at one of the other characters.
>> >>    The film was made in 1937, so this seems to be a very early occurence,
>> >>    no?  Has there been a thread on the origin of the snap?  Did it go 
>> >>    back this far?  I'm curious if this was a common thing in the thirties.
>> >
>> >Aaaaargh.  The threadlet I started was not about [insert list of snaps here]
>
>Hey!  You deleted my list of snaps! 

Oh, did I? Silly little ole me.  Sorry!

>> >nor any of the other kinds of snaps performed by one person at a time.  
>> >No.  The threadlet I started was about rhythmic unison snapping by groups 
>> >of people, snapping that takes the place of hand-clapping.  
>>
>> Dearest Arne.  And I was truly looking forward to your comments.
>
>But of course you were.

As always.  

>> But it looks as though your ego has gotten the better of you this time.
>
>*Never*!

Ahem.

>> I was actually referring to the set of ALL threads about snaps, not 
>> merely the set of threads about snaps introduced by Arne.
>
>How I adore metaphors drawn from the wonderful world of higher math.

That's plane to see.

>>  There have been others before you, Honeylamb.
>
>Oh, but they didn't have the well-known -- and much beloved -- 
>ArneTouch (TM), so who paid any attention?

True. So True!  It's like I always tell my friends. Oh yes, I tell them 
"Now you just go straight to Arne's threads and skip all that other drivel.  
No point in wasting your day on those other silly-nilly topics."


>> And no offense, but actually I skipped your last snap thread.  (Or is that 
>> "I just snapped a thread skipping?  Ah, well, no matter)
>
><Stern expression>

<peek-a-boo!>

>I'm *not* a specialist in the history of body language, sweetheart,

That's okay. I won't sue for malpractice.

>so I don't know where it came from.  My guess is that read-you-up-
>and-down snaps were used out in the real world first.  And I would
>imagine that this particular use probably derived from snaps expressing
>impatience.  <snap>  

Ouch!

>As for examples, nothing more specific than
>Carole Lombard in a satin bias-cut evening gown comes to mind.  

I lent my queer card out to a friend this week, so I seem to have forgotten
what a 'bias-cut' evening gown is.  Would you mind explaining?



pauli.