Subject: sum : 501 - beaver revisited

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - on july 8 i posted the following two sentences , 1 . the beaver got a christmas card because she did n't notice the brown paper bag at her back door . 2 . one day , in the parking lot of the concert hall , i witnessed a major used - 501 deal . in order to find out their ( hidden ) meaning . these sentences were part of a set of isolated idiomatic sentences , without any given context whatsoever , which my wife and i were trying to translate . the meaning of the majority of these sentences could be found rather easily by means of the usual resources , like common sense , ( slang - ) dictionaries and encyclopedia 's . however , 501 - beaver remained a mystery . so we decided to consult internet , to see if a native speaker could help us out . about 50 reactions came from all over the world ! with your help the 501 mystery has been solved . thanks a lot ! however , unfortunately ' the beaver has not landed ' . sorry to have bothered you with this weird sentence . we simply expected this sentence to be a common idiomatic expression . . . most of you mentioned the sexual connotations of ' beaver ' , ' bag ' and ' back door ' . the ' christmas card ' , however , does not fit into this picture . it might be a reference to something unpleasant , but then the sentence as a whole still remains highly cryptic ; the parts just do n't match ! some of you came up with the possibility , that ' the brown paper bag ' might refer to ( hiding ) a bottle of liquor . in this context ' to get a christmas card ' might be a euphemism for a hang-over or an alcohol problem . but still the sentence as a whole does not make much sense . . . another possible solution might be found in cockney rhyming slang , in which ' christmas card ' refers to ' guard ' , but then again : the other parts of the sentence just refuse to cooperate . . . or maybe the sentence refers to a childrens book or a fairy tale ? fortunately the ' 501 deal ' was more common and so it was a lot easier to figure out the meaning of the second sentence . a few people thought the 501 might be a car . this possibility had crossed our minds too . after having looked it up in a car encycopedia and having consulted a local peugeot dealer , indeed a 301 , a 401 , and a 601 , and even a 504 , turned out to exist ; a peugeot 501 , however , just does n o t exist ! so this solution had to be ruled out . the great majority of the respondents told us , that 501 refers to the popular button-fly levi 's blue jeans with straight legs . in holland this type of jeans is familiar also , but we did n't understand the " major used - 501 deal " in this context : " what 's the big deal in selling worn blue jeans ? " however , most respondents from the u . s . , but also from european countries , told us , that it is very popular to buy and sell used 501 's in the us . apparently young people are willing to pay much money for used jeans , because they are more comfortable ( less stiff ) and because they look more ' hip ' than the new ones . many companies buy used 501 's and after that they are sold from stores ( e . g . , on melrose ave . in l . a . there are at least half a dozen of these stores ) . besides that , there 's a huge ( black ) market , in which case people sell 501 's out of the back of cars or vans in parking lots or other public places . there might also be a foreign market for used 501 's , as rumour has it that used 501 's are also shipped off to paris , london , the far east ( japan ) and eastern europe . because so many people reacted , we cannot quote them all . so we have made a selection . as some of the respondents preferred not to be mentioned by name , we decided to not mention anyone by name . at the end of this recital we will give a short conclusion . . 501 's , what 's it all about " 501 's are a style of blue jeans made by levi strauss and co . 501 's are , i believe , the best-selling style of levi 's . they are button-fly ( as opposed to the kind you zip up ) , and have 5 pockets . they are the kind of jeans people think of when they think of jeans . here in the us , used 501 's are worth more than other kinds of used jeans - - in college towns , you ' ll often see signs in vintage clothing stores specifically saying something like " cash for used 501 's . " before perestroika , there was a big black market demand in russia for jeans of any kind . levi 's were the prestige brand ; i do n't know the location in time and space of your narrative , but perhaps the deal is shady . a major deal involving used jeans ( which here can be bought new on sale for $ 20 , and used , might fetch the original owner $ 10 in a vintage store ) must then be a negotiation about a truck full of jeans or so . many pairs would be needed to make the cash involved a major deal . " . used - 501 sale vs . used - 501 deal " used 501 's are becoming in recent years more and more popular among the youth of this country , hence the rise in shops and vendors that deal exclusively in these used products . _ a used - 501 deal _ is most likely an informal street sale ( not through a well-established shop , in which case it would be called a _ sale _ ) of used jeans , especially levi brand jeans ' " . witnessing a 501 deal " so the sentence could mean either the speaker witnessed someone purchase used ( previously owned ) 501 's , with 'd eal ' meaning ' ( business ) transaction ' , or 'd eal ' could mean ' bargain ' , that the jeans were being sold for less than usual . the fact that the speaker uses the verb ' witness ' would seem to remove him from the action , so perhaps the first interpretation is best . " . cowboys like their 501 's blue and stiff " i recently read an article about a company who buys used blue jeans from real cowboys and sells them at a very high price to people in places like new york city . ( cowboys , of which my brother-in - law is one , do n't wear their jeans when they start to fade , they like them blue and stiff . ) " . a used - 501 deal " i ' m inspired to write by a sign i saw a few minutes ago , while driving home from the office . it announced that a merchant would pay up to $ 17us for " used 501s . " " 501 " refers to a style of blue jeans - what my grandmother used to call dungarees - manufactured by the levi strauss co . all their style numbers are numbers between 500 and 600 . 501 is a popular style among young persons , featuring a button-fly and straight legs . i ' m no longer young enough for 501s ; i must wear 512s , which have a fuller leg and seat . tomorrow , i ' m going to take all my old , unwearable 501s and trade them for $ 17us each . i 'd say that a " major used - 501 deal " is either a transaction such as the one i ' m proposing for tomorrow or , because " deal " is sometimes used more generically , somewhat like " thing " , a place of business where such transactions take place . " . major 501 price , major 501 place or major 501 transaction " " a major used - 501 deal " no doubt refers to one of those temporary locations where people offer to buy used levi 501 jeans for around $ 8 , with the intention of re-selling them elsewhere . " deal " is so inarticulate a word that it 's not possible to tell you definitively what is meant , apart from more context . ( 1 ) my best guess is that it relates to " getting a good deal " for your used 501 jeans , that is , getting a good price for them . the scenario i have constructed is that someone wants to point out a place where you can get good money by selling your used 501 jeans . ( 2 ) if it does n't have to do with getting a price for used jeans , it might refer to the physical characteristics of the business place itself . this particular temporary storefront may be larger or more conspicuous than usual . in that scenario , someone wants to point out a larger-than - usual 501 jeans stand . ( " a major used - 501 whatchamacallit : stand , storefront , business " ) ( 3 ) last scenario : someone witnessed a major jeans-selling transaction . he wants to describe someone 's having brought in and sold a large quantity of 501 jeans to the jeans buyer . to be brief here are three possible paraphrases for " a major used - 501 deal " . 1 . " a place where they give you a much better-than - average price for your used 501 jeans " 2 . " a large or impressive used - 501 jeans stand " 3 . " a single business transaction involving the buying and selling of a large lot of 501 jeans " " . conclusion in reference to the last respondent , somehow we felt most comfortable with the third paraphrase , mainly because according to most of the other respondents a business t r a n s a c t i o n was involved here and because according to our own intuition ' to witness ' - - at least when it means ' to see sth . ' - - always goes with an object , expressing an a c t i o n rather than a s t a t e . in the case of the ' 501 deal ' this means that the one who uttered the sentence , s a w that a 501 actually w a s b e i n g sold and because he speaks of a major deal , he saw a lot of 501s being sold at once . so , in our opinion : " one day , in the parking lot of the concert hall , i witnessed a major used - 501 deal . " can best be paraphrased into : " one day , in the parking lot of the concert hall , i witnessed a business transaction involving a large stock of used levi 's 501 . " if someone still feels uncomfortable with this transcription , please do n't hesitate to send your reaction to wimk @ zeus . cs . kun . nl . thanks again for all your contributions . many regards , wim koole , also on behalf of janny koole - loonstra nijmegen holland
