"Shaggy Dog Story" / "Ready when you are, CB"
Richard Crowley
means, but am uncertain whether my perception is consistent with the
consensus. I think it means a long, often circuitous, story with a punch
line (or at least a wry twist) at the end.
For example I have a couple of these stories:
1) The story of the (reputed) origin of the term "Ready when you are, CB"
which involves the filming of the "escape from Egypt" scene in the cinematic
epic "The 10 Commandments" and Cecil B. DeMille.
2) The story of the "blue banana" about a practical joke from the very
earliest days of broadcast color television.
I could put either/both up on my web if anyone were interested in reading
them. I fear they might be overlong for this newsgroup.
Thank you,
Richard
This is the only newsgroup (of the 12-14 I read) in which I feel compelled
to use not just my spell checker, but my dictionary as well!
Robert Lieblich
>
> What is the definition of "shaggy dog story"? I *think* I know what it
> means, but am uncertain whether my perception is consistent with the
> consensus. I think it means a long, often circuitous, story with a punch
> line (or at least a wry twist) at the end.
There was a fairly long thread on this very topic recently in either
this group or its fraternal twin alt.usage.english. A bit of creative
searching of deja.com should turn it up -- if deja.com's recent Usenet
archives are still available.
Richard Crowley
"Robert Lieblich" <lieb...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3A2C5E...@erols.com...
Graham W
Richard Crowley <rcro...@xprt.net> wrote in message
news:%YXW5.66$PX1....@e420r-sjo3.usenetserver.com...
> What is the definition of "shaggy dog story"? I *think* I know what it
> means, but am uncertain whether my perception is consistent with the
> consensus. I think it means a long, often circuitous, story with a punch
> line (or at least a wry twist) at the end.
I think it should also lack the quality of being a good investment
in time, ie. it wasn't worth the effort of close attention to the
details in the build up to the punch-line.
--
Graham W D-I-Y Astro Projects, Web Graphics Tutorial
WIMBORNE http://www.graham-wood.freeserve.co.uk/
Dorset UK. Wessex Astronomical Society's Web pages
http://www.wessex-astro-society.freeserve.co.uk
Bill McCray
<rcro...@xprt.net> wrote:
>What is the definition of "shaggy dog story"? I *think* I know what it
>means, but am uncertain whether my perception is consistent with the
>consensus. I think it means a long, often circuitous, story with a punch
>line (or at least a wry twist) at the end.
I think that's about right.
>This is the only newsgroup (of the 12-14 I read) in which I feel compelled
>to use not just my spell checker, but my dictionary as well!
If you think you need it here, you probably need it all the time.
(I know I do.) Just because posters to some newsgroups might not
recognize that you've misused words is no reason to misuse words and,
thereby, encourage others to do so. Give them good examples to
follow.
Bill McCray
Lexington, KY
Sam Hinton
>On Mon, 4 Dec 2000 17:59:30 -0800, "Richard Crowley"
><rcro...@xprt.net> wrote:
>
>>What is the definition of "shaggy dog story"? I *think* I know what it
>>means, but am uncertain whether my perception is consistent with the
>>consensus. I think it means a long, often circuitous, story with a punch
>>line (or at least a wry twist) at the end.
>
>I think that's about right.
*************************
To me, a true "shaggy dog" story has no relevant punch line at all, but is told
in such a way as to lead the listener into thinking there IS a punch line which
he doesn't get. It's a sort of practical joke on the listener.
Sam
La Jolla CA USA
Dick Christoph
"Sam Hinton" <slhin...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20001220093045...@ng-fj1.aol.com...
When I was young, I went to a summer camp where these sorts of stories were
frequently told, The story itself might last five minutes or more, and often
it was made quite entertaining by the embellishments of the storyteller.
They usually ended with a pun, which certainly didn't require most of the
story leading up to it, but the story was entertaining anyway. I often
wondered why these were called "Shaggy Dog Stories." I often imagined there
was one which actually was about a Shaggy Dog, but I never heard it.
--
-Dick Christoph
Opinicus
news:91rveh$89n$1...@newsfeed.minn.net...
> They usually ended with a pun, which certainly didn't require most of the
> story leading up to it, but the story was entertaining anyway. I often
> wondered why these were called "Shaggy Dog Stories." I often imagined
there
> was one which actually was about a Shaggy Dog, but I never heard it.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/10/S0311000.html defines it as "A long,
drawn-out anecdote ending with an absurd or anticlimactic punch line. "
On the difference between a "joke" and a "shaggy dog story" see:
http://www.cybercheeze.com/info/shaggydog.html
Here a shaggy dog story that's really about a shaggy dog:
http://archive.csee.uq.edu.au/~bof/Shaggydog/intro.html
But none of these are the ORIGINAL shaggy dog story. Here's a highly
abbreviated retelling of one original version that Eric Partridge tracked
down
<quote>
A grand householder in Park Lane, London, had the great misfortune to lose
a very valuable and rather shaggy dog. He advertised repeatedly in The
Times, but without luck, and finally he gave up hope. But an American in
New York saw the advertisement, was touched by the man's devotion, and took
great trouble to seek out a dog that matched the specification in the
advertisement and which he could bring over to London on his next business
trip. He presented himself in due course at the owner's impressive house,
where he was received in the householder's absence by an even more
impressive butler, who glanced at the dog, bowed, winced almost
imperceptibly and exclaimed, in a horror-stricken voice, "But not so shaggy
as that, sir!"
</quote>
See http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-sha1.htm
The ending of a shaggy dog story with an atrocious (is there another kind)
of pun seems to be a relatively recent innovation. Purists despise it.
Gershon Legman http://www.slipcue.com/obits/obits05.html (see the third
obit on the page) gives what is probably the original shaggy dog story: a
French tale called "The diligence of Lyons" (This "diligence" being a
stagecoach.) I don't recall it in detail (which is just as well--I do
remember it was horribly long and involved) and all my copies of Legman are
up in Istanbul. A search of the web has turned up nothing. (Which is also
just as well.)
--
Bob
Foça, Turkey
---
Kanyak's Doghouse <http://www.geocities.com/kanyak.geo>
P&D Schultz
> <...> Here's a highly
> abbreviated retelling of one original version that Eric Partridge tracked
> down
>
> <quote>
> A grand householder in Park Lane, London, had the great misfortune to lose
> a very valuable and rather shaggy dog. He advertised repeatedly in The
> Times, but without luck, and finally he gave up hope. But an American in
> New York saw the advertisement, was touched by the man's devotion, and took
> great trouble to seek out a dog that matched the specification in the
> advertisement and which he could bring over to London on his next business
> trip. He presented himself in due course at the owner's impressive house,
> where he was received in the householder's absence by an even more
> impressive butler, who glanced at the dog, bowed, winced almost
> imperceptibly and exclaimed, in a horror-stricken voice, "But not so shaggy
> as that, sir!"
> </quote>
>
To understand just how abbreviated that is, you must imagine the
advertisement quoted at extreme length ("any person believing to be in
possession of information regarding this beloved canine is implored to
contact Lord and Lady Pembroke Ainsworth Featherstonehaugh, Arseworth
Manor, Pippington-Hindbarrow-upon-Thames, Choking-Bonkers, Surrey,
Funkinghamshire. Reward: 8 guineas, 5 pound, 7 crown, 14 bob and a
ha-penny" (etc. etc.). And the ad in the Times of London somehow gets to
New York and is spotted by a bum who is using the newspaper as a blanket
for his park-bench bed in Central Park, etc. etc. The joke can go on for
many minutes. And the longer the telling, the more sour the let-down at
the end.
\\P. Schultz
Opinicus
news:3A42DD6C...@erols.com...
P&D:
> To understand just how abbreviated that is, you must imagine the
> advertisement quoted at extreme length ("any person believing to be in
> possession of information regarding this beloved canine is implored to
> contact Lord and Lady Pembroke Ainsworth Featherstonehaugh, Arseworth
8< snip!
Assuming that you didn't just ad-lib this on the spur of the moment (and if
you did, it's awesome), can you point me to where I can find the source?
David
"I believe larger dogs have exactly the same number of whole bones
as smaller dogs."
"But a whole bone, as a proportion of the smaller dog's daily intake,
is greater thus increasing the likelyhood of whiteshite syndrome."
I think you missed the point.
But the real reason that small dogs extrude a greater proportion of
coprolitic stools is simply that their noses are generally nearer the
ground. Look at almost any ground and you will see sherds of broken
pottery, dating from pre-historic times to the modern porcelain
chippery resulting from clumsy use of wrenches by inept Yorkshiremen
too stingy to call a plumber to their overflowing loo. All this pottery
is ground up in the ground (well, that's what 'ground' is, isn't it?)
and in the summer months exists as a fine white dust which lifts a few
inches into the air as a dog's paws pad down upon it. The noses of
larger dogs are generally held higher than this almost invisible cloud
of fine white dust (except of, course, when an interesting bitch has
recently passed the same way) but those of smaller dogs are carried
within this cloud for the entire period of 'walkies' and so these
little terriers, beijingese and the like, are constantly inhaling
porcelain dust. Obviously the dust initially settles amongst the mucus
membranes of the nasal passages and in the cilia of the lungs. However,
when one of these diminutive dogs chances upon a human being other than
its owner, it coughs (owners fondly refer to the sound as a 'bark' but
no objective auditor could ever equate the cough of a corgi to the woof
of a wolfhound), bringing up phlegm chock-full of chalky dust - which
it then swallows. As all dog lovers will have noticed, large dogs
generally have trim, muscular undersides whereas small dogs always have
well rounded abdomens. Not for nothing is this anatomical feature known
as the 'pot-belly': the belly of the smaller dog is genetically adapted
to storing the dust of ground pottery until it forms a mass the size of
the average alsation stool, whereupon the dog is impelled by race
memories to seek the nearest children's playgound and void the
discussed object. Some authorities on the white dog turd argue that the
phenomenon of larger dogs passing such objects is the result solely of
them having eaten those originally formed within the intestinal tract
of their smaller cousins, the objects themselves passing through
completely unmodified.
Claims that the shaggy dog is more prolific in white turd formation
seem completely unfounded.
--
http://www.dacha.freeuk.com/photo/0y15-0.htm
The recently renovated South face of Rockingham's magnificent pyramidal folly at Wentworth
Dr Robin Bignall
wrote:
That's the way "The Times" would have an advert worded in days of
yore. In those days, the adverts were on the front page, and news,
being vulgar, was relegated to the inside pages. This layout was kept
up until the 1960s!
--
wrmst rgds
RB...(docr...@cwcom.net)
P&D Schultz
>
> "P&D Schultz" <schu...@erols.com> wrote in message
> news:3A42DD6C...@erols.com...
>
> P&D:
> > To understand just how abbreviated that is, you must imagine the
> > advertisement quoted at extreme length ("any person believing to be in
> > possession of information regarding this beloved canine is implored to
> > contact Lord and Lady Pembroke Ainsworth Featherstonehaugh, Arseworth
> 8< snip!
> Assuming that you didn't just ad-lib this on the spur of the moment (and if
> you did, it's awesome), can you point me to where I can find the source?
It's a paraphrase of a rather nice explanation of the genre in a very,
very old Mad Magazine, way back in the 1950s, before that magazine began
the first of its 20 or 30 turns downward toward crapdom.
\\P. Schultz
Opinicus
> It's a paraphrase of a rather nice explanation of the genre in a very,
> very old Mad Magazine, way back in the 1950s, before that magazine began
> the first of its 20 or 30 turns downward toward crapdom.
Mad at least has the virtue of being still alive. (And no, I don't read it
for the same reason that you give.) That's more than the NatLamp can say.
;-(
--
Polar
wrote:
Hey, it was still pretty damn good in the 60s and 70s! I brought up
my son on MAD magazine. Explaining the take-offs gave me a
perfect opportunity to slip in a geography, history, sociology,
technology, etc. lesson.
--
Polar