The Evolution of Insults (Continued)

What got the Solipsist thinking about insults, actually, was an article about profanity by psychologist Stephen Pinker.  He mentions in passing that the everyday insult "jerk"--which most people use casually to refer to those they find mildly annoying--originally meant "masturbator."  Presumably, we are still somewhat cognizant of this, as when we refer to someone as a "jerkoff."  Even that, though, has lost most of its sexual connotation, and if/when we use it, we usually just mean that someone is contemptibly lazy.

Thing is, though, American English doesn't really HAVE a derogatory term meaning "one who masturbates."  This was brought home to the Solipsist awhile back when he was working on a monologue from a British play.  He was trying to Americanize some of the slang, but he hit a brick wall when he came to a line about "secret wankers" and the "objects of their masturbation fantasies."  What's the American version of "wanker"?  Can we Sloppists come up with one?

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And Then There's No More Maude

A fond farewell to Bea Arthur.  A funny lady, and one of that select group of relatively famous people that you can never actually envision as "young."  Others include Burgess Meredith, Wilford Brimley, and, to a lesser extent, Patrick Stewart; one swears these people must have been BORN 40.  RIP, Bea.