I gotta know.  I hate it when I can't figure out where a word comes from or
what it means in context.  So what does the "self" in "black-self" mean?
And what does "black-self" mean?
 
In the same vein, it dawned on me this weekend what the origin of the term
"pissed off" has got to be.  When I only had cats and I angered them (like
by going away overnight) they would unroll all the toilet paper and knock
things off the coffee table.  When I married Eric and his dog, and we went
on our first vacation without her, we came home to learn that my mother had
thrown out the rug from our front hall and was mopping the floor daily
because the dog was mad at us.  I had forgotten this incident until this
weekend.  Our five fuzzies and their two condos and all their tubes and
blankies and treats are housed in our bedroom while the fuzzies' rec room is
having repairs done.  Well ... not only do they not like the confinement of
the (very large) bedroom, they also do not like to be left alone in there.
First they started to pee in front of the door if I closed them in the room.
Last night Sabine started to back into the corner by Eric's dresser.  I
cried, "NO NO," and carried her to a litter box.  The little poop (or do I
mean pisser?) gave me her mule look and ran under the bed to pee on a
caster.  And the lightbulb lit over my head: She's Pissed Off!!  And the
coiner of the term must just gotta certainly have had a pet.
 
Judith White
[Posted in FML issue 1612]