Preoccupied of late with war words, I have not kept up with the jonesing.
''Jonesing for Joni'' was listed in Entertainment Weekly, describing a PBS documentary on the folk singer Joni Mitchell.
''For those of you who have been jonesing for an interactive theater fix'' was the lead of a recent film review by Michael Gallucci in The Cleveland Scene.
''Love Is the Drug, and I'm Jonesing for a Hit'' was the headline in The New York Observer over an article last month by Susan Shapiro kvetching about her husband's lack of sexual aggressiveness.
This is obviously a participle in play, presumably the latest, hot, with-it usage. On digging into the Times archives, however, I found this Oct. 19, 1970, citation in a profile of Alva V. John, a Harlem broadcaster: ''That food may not be the most delicious in the world, but it's not nearly so dangerous as these jones you've been having.'' The reporter, now Charlayne Hunter-Gault of PBS, explained in parenthesis: ''A jones is a craving brought on by drug usage.''
The root is a proper noun: for a reason I cannot fathom, Jones -- a family name held in my estimation by nearly 18 million Americans -- was applied in the early 1960's to heroin addiction. J.E. Lighter's Historical Dictionary of American Slang speculates about another possible origin: the male sex organ. In the 1970's, the noun -- no longer capitalized -- most often referred to withdrawal symptoms, and made the transition to verb: jonesing out. In 1984, I noted that jonesin' was extended to mean ''doin' nothin','' as addicts often do, but it was not until this millennium that the participle made the leap into popular speech as a generalized ''craving.''
''When I was little,'' says my colleague Maureen Dowd (meaning when she was growing up in Washington), ''we used to say jone-ing, which meant 'picking on.' When you were jone-ing on someone, you were mocking them.'' This local usage was overwhelmed by the national underground popularity of jonesing, in its postnarcotics sense of ''lusting for.''
On Gawker Stalker, a Web site that observes, and leers and snickers at, personalities in the news, a notably slim fashion editor was spotted ''zeta-jonesing on a McVeggie at the gaudy, fou-fou McDonald's on 42nd btw 8th & b'way.''
Thus does the language come full circle. The allusion is to the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, cattily scolded for adding a few pounds since her Oscar-winning performance in ''Chicago.'' Cruelly but creatively, the blogger applies her hyphenated last name to the lusting after a tasty burger by the hungry editor. To take the meaning of this nonce variation from the context, zeta-jonesing is ''indulging in a craving for (meatless) food.'' This specialized usage returns jonesing to its original state of a proper noun in participle form.
In current slang use, jonesing has evolved from its narcotics-addiction base to a general lusting, craving or yearning. It seems to have shouldered aside to have the hots for.
basketball jones......i got a basketball jones......... i got a basketball jones oh baby, oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh,
Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.
Nobody's gonna miss me, no tears will fall, no ones gonna weap, when i hit that road. my boots are broken my brain is sore, fer keepin' up with thier little world, i got a heavy load. gonna leave 'em all just like before, i'm big city bound, your always 17 in your hometown
i havent had one in a really long time i was going to collect a whole bunch of the bottles and put them all over my room. but i was too lazy, so i ended up with a grand total of....two meh
thirdhour wrote:me thinks ive gotta a jonesin' for sum luvin'
looks like somone is looking for a piece of booty.
Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.
Nobody's gonna miss me, no tears will fall, no ones gonna weap, when i hit that road. my boots are broken my brain is sore, fer keepin' up with thier little world, i got a heavy load. gonna leave 'em all just like before, i'm big city bound, your always 17 in your hometown
thirdhour wrote:i havent had one in a really long time i was going to collect a whole bunch of the bottles and put them all over my room. but i was too lazy, so i ended up with a grand total of....two meh
my friend collects jones soda caps. wow, she has about oh i'd say an assload right about now which is ... a lot.
sometimes you chicks get real horny, it scares the hell out of me.
Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.
Nobody's gonna miss me, no tears will fall, no ones gonna weap, when i hit that road. my boots are broken my brain is sore, fer keepin' up with thier little world, i got a heavy load. gonna leave 'em all just like before, i'm big city bound, your always 17 in your hometown
i'm fucked up, i just want a real relationship. all this screwing around has kinda lost it's luster or something.
give me a month, i'll be tapping asses right next to Yannic.
Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.
Nobody's gonna miss me, no tears will fall, no ones gonna weap, when i hit that road. my boots are broken my brain is sore, fer keepin' up with thier little world, i got a heavy load. gonna leave 'em all just like before, i'm big city bound, your always 17 in your hometown
you ok? you look a little shocked. what suprised you? the fact that i want a real relationship or the fact that in a month i'll be tapping ass?
Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.
Nobody's gonna miss me, no tears will fall, no ones gonna weap, when i hit that road. my boots are broken my brain is sore, fer keepin' up with thier little world, i got a heavy load. gonna leave 'em all just like before, i'm big city bound, your always 17 in your hometown
i was going to collect a whole bunch of the bottles and put them all over my room. but i was too lazy, so i ended up with a grand total of....two 
meh
we can go for a real relationship if you want...