Callipygian

[Dave Monroe]

Dear Annie: I saw the letter from "Not Knowing in
Illinois," who asked how to identify her child's
ethnic background on registrations or applications.

Jef Mallett had another solution in his comic strip,
"Frazz." A multiracial child complained to Frazz that
he didn't like the race question on a form because he
resented the question and he was of mixed race. Frazz
told the kid that when asked that question, he always
put down "Callipygian."

I did that myself in an application and I got the
position. "Callipygian" means having a shapely bottom.
Burbank, Calif.

Dear Burbank: You CAN learn something from comics. One
of the first uses of "callipygian," by the way, was by
Thomas Pynchon in his book "Gravity's Rainbow." We
think unusual words are worth learning. Impress your
friends.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/living/14597602.htm

"Always baiting his master in hopes of getting a
leather-keen stripe or two across those dusky
Afro-Scandinavian buttocks, which combine the
callipygian rondure observed among the races of the
Dark Continent with the taut and noble musculature of
sturdy Olaf, our blond Northern cousin."  (GR, Pt. I,
p. 69)

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