the phrase "NASA has given the go to connect with the Dragon capsule" sounds like the blurb on the back of an SF book.
I knew about the racial angle to spade, but the most frequent use I've heard is re: cards and shovels.
Fred: The size and depth of the wound indicate a female vampire. Harmony: Or gay! Fred: Um…it doesn't really work like that.
'Harm's Way'
Natter 70: Hookers and Blow
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Connie Neil - May 25, 2012 7:13:06 am PDT #6657 of 30001
brillig
DavidS - May 25, 2012 7:13:13 am PDT #6658 of 30001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
And some of us don't have friends with weird sex things in their past.
Don't you consider me a friend, tommy?
tommyrot - May 25, 2012 7:15:00 am PDT #6659 of 30001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Don't you consider me a friend, tommy?
I have obviously failed to ask you about your weird sex past.
How do you feel about doorknobs?
smonster - May 25, 2012 7:16:48 am PDT #6660 of 30001
We won’t stop until everyone is gay.
I was also unaware of the racist spade connotation. Huh.
tommyrot - May 25, 2012 7:17:22 am PDT #6661 of 30001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Oh wait--I also had two friends, both male, who had sex with their brothers.
How did I forget this stuff?
DavidS - May 25, 2012 7:17:52 am PDT #6662 of 30001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I have obviously failed to ask you about your weird sex past.
Because I've already volunteered all that information!
How do you feel about doorknobs?
I don't want to fuck a doorknob. Cross that off the list.
DavidS - May 25, 2012 7:18:12 am PDT #6663 of 30001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
How did I forget this stuff?
Freud calls it "repression."
tommyrot - May 25, 2012 7:18:48 am PDT #6664 of 30001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Because I've already volunteered all that information!
I must have repressed it.
§ ita § - May 25, 2012 7:19:05 am PDT #6665 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I thought it was something most people knew.
So did I. I had figured it for common historical knowledge, and then someone on gawker *pedantically* explained it, and I realised it wasn't pedantic at all, from the number of people going "Huh? Spade? Huh?"
It's the second google hit--I figured that reflected knowledge in adults, but nope.
However, my understanding of its usage was Prohibition era. I feel like I've seen it in films of that period.
JZ - May 25, 2012 7:19:12 am PDT #6666 of 30001
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I knew it had the other meaning (I know I've heard it in that song from Hair, but I think I may have known it before then, probably from some long-ago Social Problem novel in my grandparents' basement), but the only way I've ever heard any actual people use it out loud was in the gardening-implement sense.