This morning I cut myself on a can of baked beans. As I was going to the bathroom to get a band-aid, I remembered that a friend had recently sent me a very special band-aid in the mail, one decorated with Jesus’ “visage”, as she put it. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened the package, but I was surprised and pleased beyond my wildest expectations.
I have no doubt that I will soon make a full recovery.
Shortly after posting about my wonders on the etymology of “mugshot”, I received the following two emails from my friends.
Harpo, did you ever track down the origins of slang “mug”, meaning face?Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable(16th edition, 1995) didn’t have much on the etymology, but said that “mug” in “mugshot” doesn’t mean “criminal”, but rather “face”, which was my intuition. “Mugging” someone is “from the old slang use of ‘mug’ meaning to rob or swindle” and “mug” as a noun is also slang for “one who is easily taken in, possibly coming from the gypsy meaning, a simpleton or ‘muff’.”The OED (1971 edition) says “mug” meaning “face” might come from the commonest sense of the word (something you drink from), because in the 1700′s mugs in the shape of grotesque faces were common. The first citation of “mug” in this sense of “face” is a dictionary from 1812. The first citation in context is from 1824.The OED didn’t have “mug” as a verb meaning “to rob” or anything along those lines, although it did have several other verbal uses of “mug”. It agreed with Brewer’s about “a mug” being a dupe, so maybe those uses are related. Besides for the noun usages I mentioned, the OED lists several others.
oed online (3rd entry, after cup and sheep):
1. a.A face,esp.an unattractive one.
1708Brit. ApolloNo. 2. 2/2 My Lawyer has a Desk, nine Law-books without Covers, two with Covers, a Temple-Mug, and the hopes of being a Judge.1798G. COLMANHeir at LawIII. ii. 47 Never let him clap his damned ugly mug in these here doors again.1824P. EGANBoxianaII. 412 His mug was often disfigured with the claret trickling down.1850E. FITZGERALDLett.(1889) I. 200, I found A. Tennyson in chambers at Lincoln’s Inn: and recreated myself with a sight of his fine old mug.1897G. MEREDITHAmazing MarriageI. xvi. 186 Look at old Rufus Abrane. I see the state of the fight on the old fellow’s mug. He hasn’t a bet left in him!1930J. B. PRIESTLEYAngel Pavementii. 84 They were all tired of seeing his depressing old mug.1955A. WESTHeritagei. 16 This is for you because you’ve got such a funny little mug.1986L. CODYUnder Contractxvi. 59 What! Miss a chance to get your ugly mug in the papers!b.A grotesque or exaggerated (and freq. humorous) facial expression; a grimace, a ‘funny face’.
1844E. R. LANCASTERManager’s Daughter(ed. 2) inOxberry’s Budget of PlaysI. 110/1 Who does he suppose was to cut comic mugs before noblemen, without being paid double sals.?1865Leaves from Diary Celebrated Burglarxxxiii. 109/1 Many were the queer ‘mugs’ put on by those who had been ‘gone through’… Artful..shook with suppressed laughter at the victim’s bewildered and doleful phiz.1907J. M. SYNGEPlayboy of Western World(1979)II. 51 He’d be..making mugs at his own self in the bit of a glass we had hung on the wall.1914D. H. LAWRENCEWidowing of Mrs. HolroydI. ii. 26 Oh, indeed! You think I’ve got to pull a mug to look decent? You’d have to pull a big ‘un, at that rate.1929K. S. PRICHARDCoonardooxvii. 169 The obstinate little mug Mollie had drawn her face into.1995Christian Sci. Monitor10 May 13 Mary Alice leans forward and scrunches up her face into a delightfully comic mug: eyes wide, mouth open, and shoulders in a shrug.c.orig.U.S.A photograph or other likeness of a person’s face, esp. in police or other official records. Cf.mug shotn. at Compounds.
1887Lantern(New Orleans)9 July 2/2 He had his mug taken in fireman’s clothes.1889C. T. CLARKSON& J. H. RICHARDSONPolice!xxiii. 323 Circulating thieves’ photos… Pushing the mugs round.1940R. CHANDLERFarewell, my Lovelyvi. 43 Nulty turned over a photo..and handed it to me. It was a police mug, front and profile.1982L. CODYBad Companyvii. 46 We’ve been showing them the books, natch, and some women picked out a mug.1820J. H. REYNOLDSFancy(1906) 22 Speak, Mrs. Tims; open thy mug, my dear; Mouths here are made to speak, and not to eat.1835T. C. HALIBURTONClockmaker(1837) 1st. Ser. xx. 202 Hold your mug, you old nigger.1896E. TURNERLittle Larrikinxvii. 192, I was afraid I must have said ‘Shut your mug’, or ‘chump’.1939S. SPENDERtr. E. TollerPastor Hall64 Shut your dirty mug!3.The act of throttling or strangling a person. Usu. into put the mug on(someone)**.
1862Sessions Papers Cent. Criminal Court26 Nov. 41 Roberts..said, ‘You want me for putting themugon, do you? I will put the bymugon you.’1862Sessions Papers Cent. Criminal Court26 Nov. 41Mugis slang used by thieves; it means garotting.1902H. HAPGOODAutobiogr. Thief(1912) 271, I explained how I would ‘put the mug on her’ while my husky pal went through her.1940Amer. Speech15121/1To put the mug on(a mark), to put a stranglehold on a mark who grows obstreperous after he has been fleeced.1955Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc.XXIV. 171 A strangle hold is applied… This hold is called..amugon the East Coast.</p>
COMPOUNDSmug bookn.U.S.(a) a book in which business or professional people publicize themselves and are exhibited in flattering photographs; (b) a book containing photographs of people’s faces, esp. in police records.
1902C. L. CULLENMore Ex-tank Talesiv. 85 I’d often seen him in New York, and I’d seen his mush in Byrnes’s *mug book, too.
mugfakern.a street photographer.</p>1933‘G. ORWELL’Down & Outxxxii. 236 A *mugfakermug shotn.orig.U.S.a photograph of a person’s face, esp. in police or other official records (cf. sense 1c).
Now I know the answer(s). And I didn’t even have to look it / them up.
Grown tired of others using my bath towel, I decided to take extreme action. This should make them think at least twice.
Arriving back in town after rehearsal (which was, as I had forseen, very tiring), I am surprised to see a man playing piano on the street. Not a keyboard. A piano. My town has some pretty odd street performers – I have at times belonged to their ranks myself – but this just about tops them all.
What a strangely beautiful (and beautifully strange) juxtaposition.
I arrived at Chemistry class last week all prepared (or so I thought) with a three-ring binder, looseleaf college-ruled paper (which turns out to be my teacher’s favorite kind), pencils, pens, a graphing calculator, etc. Turns out that we are required to have a marble composition notebook for our lab notes. This is because a real lab notebook would have unremovale pages, so a scientist could not “cheat” and take out pages for whatever reason. I have reluctantly, therefore, just finished another school supply trip, this one to the local overstock outlet. Better than Target and Wal-Mart, but still a drag.
On the bright side, I am looking forward to this class. I think it will be a lot of fun. We may even get to blow things up.
The link NASA sent me that would supposedly allow me to submit my “theory” did not work. Here’s the email I sent them:
Thank you for your prompt response. The link to information on theory
submission was very informative. Unfortunately, the first link did
not work, so I am unable to continue with submitting my theory.
Please let me know how I can go about this. Thank you very much for
your time.
I eagerly await your response.
-Harpo Jaeger
I spent the day working on college essays. It was rather monotonous. Tomorrow will also be tiring, although much more interesting. I’ll be at school all day working on a show. In the morning we are cuing, and after noon when the actors leave, we will be setting up some A/V equipment. I don’t know how long I’ll be there, but I imagine I will be exhausted.
And I didn’t do any homework today.
Here it is:
Dear Mr. Jaeger:
Thank you for your inquiry to NASA of September 3, 2008.
The web site: http://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/hq/library/unSol-Prop.html contains information on how to submit a proposal to NASA. Basic information on theory submittal can be obtained at
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/960908.html.
Your interest in NASA and America’s space program is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Public Communications
Public Services and Protocol Division
Office of Public Affairs
Needless to say, I will be following up on this and submitting my “theory”. Further updates will follow.
NASA replied to my phone call! I will post the content of the email I received as soon as I get home.
The first week of school has ended. Although it was an excellent week, I am looking forward to the weekend. I will be at school again on Sunday working on a show that goes up a week from today, but it looks as though tomorrow will be a day to relax. And do homework. Lots of homework.
I am currently using 1023MB of storage in my Gmail account. This is only 1MB below 1GB, clearly a very important benchmark.
To find out why one gigabyte is not, as the name would imply, 1000 megabytes, click here.
One of our chickens is a Silver-Spangled Hamburg, and this morning when we were talking about her, my sister referred to her as an “SSH”. I found this rather amusing. If you don’t understand why, read this.</p>
This morning my sister asked what “mug” meant in the context of “face”. I realized I didn’t really know why it meant this. My father pointed out that it could have been because “mug” meant a criminal, as in getting mugged or a mugshot, and then “mug” could have changed to mean “face” because mugshots are just pictures of faces.
Who knows? This is a job for…WIKIPEDIA-MAN!
Today in the car my father and I developed a theory in the car on the way to school. We think that if Mickey and Minney Mouse were launched into space and started a new race, this race would count in base six, since Mickey and Minnie mouse have only three fingers on each hand. I am calling NASA about this to see what they say.
I left a message asking them to call me back or email me. We will see if they actually do.
It occurred to me this morning that there is less time between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next and the beginning of the year and the end of the year. Hence, I remember the end of last year better now than I will the beginning of this year at graduation. This seems rather counterintuitive.
My backpack got a lot heavier today. It looks as though I may be doing an independent study of Calculus 4, so I’m now carrying around the Anton Calculus book, which is almost 1500 pages long. I haven’t even received my Chemistry or Statistics books yet.
My academic load this year looks to be quite heavy, if you will.
I am on my way to the first day of school. Because I have a rehearsal after school today, I will be there until 8 PM. Talk about diving right in. I am looking forward to an excellent first day, though.
The first day of school is over. It was excellent to be back and to see all of my friends. It was also rather stressful to be back in a school environment. I suppose it always seems sudden, but it really is always a shock to really be back.
I’m going to try to blog pretty regularly about school. This is going to be an interesting year.