Croak
Spam Observations #15
Barrister Kelvin Bello (Esq) sent me details of how I might collect $US7 million dollars for doing him a trifling favour. It was addressed thus:
Hmmm. Should I take offense at his manners, when there is such a substantial sum in the offing?
Barrister Kelvin Bello (Esq) sent me details of how I might collect $US7 million dollars for doing him a trifling favour. It was addressed thus:
From: dr_bello_11@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: HOW ARE YOU TOADY
Hmmm. Should I take offense at his manners, when there is such a substantial sum in the offing?
† anaglyph 12:33 PM
5 comments:
I like it. He's upfront, honest, straight to the point. I say trust him with your life savings.
toad·y
n. pl. toad·ies
A person who flatters or defers to others for self-serving reasons; a sycophant.
To be a toady to or behave like a toady.
[From toad.]
Word History: The earliest recorded sense (around 1690) of toady is “a little or young toad,” but this has nothing to do with the modern usage of the word. The modern sense has rather to do with the practice of certain quacks or charlatans who claimed that they could draw out poisons. Toads were thought to be poisonous, so these charlatans would have an attendant eat or pretend to eat a toad and then claim to extract the poison from the attendant. Since eating a toad is an unpleasant job, these attendants came to epitomize the type of person who would do anything for a superior, and toadeater (first recorded 1629) became the name for a flattering, fawning parasite. Toadeater and the verb derived from it, toadeat, influenced the sense of the noun and verb toad and the noun toady, so that both nouns could mean “sycophant” and the verb toady could mean “to act like a toady to someone.”
hmmm. hard to say if he might be insulting you somehow. i'd at least ask for half up-front and go from there.
Maybe he's not asking "how are you, toady?" but "how are you toady?" The latter form leaves open the possibility that you are not in fact toady.
Good point RJ. You mean like this:
Him: "How are you toady?"
Me: "Well, I have green warty skin and webbed feet."
Him: "I see. That's pretty toady. Now, how do you want the 7 mill?"
I don't mean to get your hopes up, but I think a valid slang term for US currency is "frogskins."
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