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Saturday, September 12, 2020


 Mr. Scumbeast called this one "Fag Ash Lil Takes a Bath."
I never got around to asking him the meaning of that before he passed away.

4 comments:

  1. I'm wondering if Mr Scumbeast was British? The slang term "fag" over there means a cigarette - have no idea of the derivation unless it came down from "faggot" which were bundles of sticks used for fires - as I remember they used those for burning people at the stake - I see an ashtray on the tub so I'm going to say that it is full of "fag" ashes and hence the title - what do you think??

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    1. Mr. Scumbeast, aka Ken Suffolk, was indeed British, but lived out his last days in Amsterdam. I got the fag and the ash bit, but always wondered if "Lil" was an expression for a certain type of person or just a name he liked or made up. Ken was an amazingly kind and witty man who generously bequeathed me his huge collection of vintage pictures. R.I.P.

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  2. Yes, "Fag Ash Lil" was quite a common, camp phrase in the pre-legal gay subculture in England, denoting a chain-smoking queen. There were others: "Swept Over Lil" was reserved for those who could not come to terms with male pattern baldness and swept the residual hair from one side of the head over the bald pate. "Camp" or "shop" names were a commonplace, mostly female names, although I did once hear of a "Brilla" who, because of his golden curly hair, was named after a Brillo Pad - a rectangle of gold-coloured wire wool used to clean saucepans until they shone "brilliantly". "Lil" comes, of course, from "Lilian" and its ubiquity may have derived from the old music hall or perhaps a drag act.

    My etymological dictionary of English slang tells us that "fag" first appears for a cigarette in 1888, derived from a now obsolete usage originally denoting the butt of a smoked cigarette, probably from a "fag" (late 14th century") for a "loose piece, last remnant of cloth", as in fag-end "extreme end, loose piece,"

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    1. Thanks for the explanation. No surprise that gay slang was involved given Ken's sense of humor.

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