LBJ achieved some White House notoriety by inviting folks into the john to
for intimate viewing of his appendix or some other operative scar. To
describe LBJ's power over others, Norman Mailer once described how if you
turned LBJ upside down in his suit jacket that all "these peckers" would
come falling out of his pockets.
I don't think it was a good idea for any one (male) to go to the John with
LBJ.
Well, he did get Civil Rights legislation through the Congress, and
MediCare. Needless to say it's been a different set of "peckers" in the
Bush/Delay pockets of recent time. They gather them in certain Churches, I
assume.
Stephen V
> MJ Walker wrote:
>
>>> This *john*/* */is a variant on *jack* //, *jacks* or// *jakes*, all
>> of which have meant "privy" since the early 1500s. Their origin is
>> uncertain but it is very likely that they originated in someone
>> excusing themselves with "I must speak with my friend Jack" or some
>> such.<
>> mj
>
> Remarkable that this is somewhat mysterious. Pushing it further, there
> was (at least where I grew up) the ever-popular phrase as one exited to
> the "facility," "I've gotta see a man about a horse." Why a horse?
> "I've gotta seea man about an Akita"? Naaaah. Not the same at all.
>
> Ignoring socially polite speech could be why one of the funniest moments
> in *The Sting* came early in the film when Paul Newman's character
> walked into an on-train poke game already in progress and announced
> "Sorry I'm late, fellas, I was taking a crap"--a move calculated to
> shake the timing of the villain played by Robert Shaw. Real life was
> even funnier, if one is to believe the account of Paul Krassner,
> editor/publisher of the former *The Realist*. Lyndon Johnson was
> present at the Strategic Air Command facility in Nebraska, shepherding
> around an Italian diplomat representing NATO. While the presentation
> was going on, Johnson stood up and, without excusing himself, announced
> "I'm goin' out to have a piss." Now, whether or not it's true, both
> stories suggest deliberate faux guilelessness. Then again...the Newman
> character in the movie was avoiding socially acceptable euphemism with a
> purpose. President Johnson, on the other hand, could just have been a slob.
>
> Ken
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