MDMD: catching up

[Don Corathers]

Sorry I missed your earlier posts, Terrence. Thanks for the link. No
surprise that Pynchon's assertion of the authenticity of the nautical term
is accurate. Lord knows the man does his research. I was actually more
interested in the etymology.

I've been around this list for a long time, mostly as a parasitical lurker,
and I don't suppose I have much standing, but I hope you'll reconsider
leaving. I don't think the M&D discussion is dead. I think it's easily
distracted.

Me, I'm following your advice to ignore the noise.

Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "Terrance" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: "Don Corathers" <crawdad at one.net>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: MDMD: catching up


>
>
> Don Corathers wrote:
> >
> > I'm running some distance behind the MDMD, having arrived just last
night
> > (with great pleasure) at the Vroom household, and working my way through
the
> > several hundred accumulated posts in my inbox.
> >
> > I hope the list will forgive this retrograde post, but I wanted to see
if
> > anyone could shed any light on a language note that as far as I can tell
> > wasn't discussed the first time through:
> >
> > "Some would call her a Frigate, though officially she is a couple of
guns
> > shy, causing others to add the prefix 'Jackass,'--a nautical term."
(36:1-2)
> >
> > Is it? I'd appreciate hearing from anybody who has encountered this
usage
> > before.
> >
> > Slang dictionaries I've consulted have not been informative on the
matter,
> > but I can think of a lot of instances in which "jack" as a prefix is
used to
> > indicate inferiority, or a counterfeit or ersatz quality. There's jack
shit,
> > meaning not even quite as good as shit. Jackleg, which has the sense of
> > "makeshift." Jack off. Jack knife, not quite a real knife. In certain
> > working class restaurants in the midwestern U.S., the only fish on the
menu
> > is called jack salmon, which is actually cod, breaded and deepfried. (It
is
> > my astonishment at this phenomenon that first caused me to reflect on
the
> > meaning of "jack," some years ago.)
> >
> > This all seems consistent with the Seahorse being labeled a Jackass
Frigate
> > because it doesn't qualify as a real one with the requisite number of
guns.
> > After the first reference, Pynchon (or Capt. Smith) takes the trope in
> > another direction, adapting the combat tactics of the jackass to a ship
> > called horse.
> >
> > Any of you jack tars have any insight into "Jackass" as a nautical term?
> >
> > Don
>
> It's a nautical term.
>
> I posted a bunch of stuff on it. And a nautical dictionary.
>
> http://www.sailingships.hnpl.net/pages/picspgs/jackassbarques.htm
>
>
> Outa here too.
>
> Why should anyone post anything here?
>
> MDMD is dead if you ask me.
>
> See ya'll if Pynchon publishes another book.
>
> Say, good article on Moby-Dick and reading books in The Wall Street
> Journal today.
>
> Just another Fascist out of my league,
>
> T
>
>
>