IVing IV " 'woods"...calling Ishmael Reed

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 4, 2009, at 5:50 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> P. 292 "how soon you want all them 'woods suckin all on you dick in  
> gratitude?"
>
> Ah, what's "'woods mean", do we know (or think?) Or, what is missing  
> that is expressed by the apostrophe?

Peckerwood:

	Peckerwood (or simply Wood) is a racial slur 19th century
	southern Black Americans used to describe poor whites. Blacks
	saw blackbirds as a symbol of themselves, and the redheaded
	woodpecker as a representation of working class whites. They
	considered them loud and troublesome like the bird, and
	sometimes with red hair like the woodpecker's head plumes.
	This word is still widely used by southern blacks to refer to
	southern whites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peckerwood

> yes, we know wood is the not-usual-slang for an erection, a  
> woody.....BUT
> is that what it means here?
>
> Here is an older meaning.
> (archaic) mad, insane, crazed
>
> With this definition just learned, I might say in context it means  
> something like "crazies from the hood"?......
>
> anyone, anyone?