..when I was young and first learning French
I rented a room for the summer in Paris ..my first trip out of the U.S.( my French was poor)..when I arrived at the apartment of my host.. the elderly matron asked ..would I like a "DOUCHE"!!!!!..you can imagine my shock as an 19 yr old American guy...I politely replyed that "I MIGHT"...naturally I thought YES, THESE FRENCH ARE DIFFERENT!!!

( I also asked one night while dressing to go out if I should wear a CREVETTE!!!!!) sigh!

Maybe she said "You act like a douche".
Maybe she was the writer for Manfred Mann's Earth Band and she was saying "Wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night, blinded by the light...."
Maybe she was a colonic therpaist and she really was asking "Do you want a douche".

Its not wrapped up like a douche as many think. It is deuce, wrapped up like a deuce.

I, too, tend to believe you misunderstood what you heard. Chances are she was actually saying "You are a dildo who bears a striking resemblance to Jerry Lewis".

It is actually revved up like a deuce (which makes sense seeing as a deuce is a car) and written by Bruce Springsteen. I believe his original words were "cut loose like a deuce" which was changed in the Manfred Mann version.

JA's post made me laugh because when I was in 9th grade, I had an exchange student from Germany come to stay with me for a month. The first day that she arrived, she told me that she usually douched twice a day. Forgetting all of the German I knew at the time, I thought, "too much personal information!!!" I realized a few minutes later she meant "shower" but it still makes me chuckle.

Alex, is it REALLY "revved up like a deuce"? I've been curious for years what that meant. Does anyone know where I can find (online) the lyrics to the song?

Thanks, Alex!!

There are a number of websites that have lyrics including: mylyricarchive.com, purelyrics.com, etc... Some of the lyric sites I have found in the past do actually say "wrapped like a deuce" but I believe I got the words "revved up" from the liner notes of our albums. Huge Boss fans in my family!!!

Ok, it's not about travel but reading this I am reminded of something that happened in a small predominantly English speaking Roman Catholic town in Nova Scotia about 20 years ago. A priest arrived from South America. He spoke no English. He invited the nuns from the convent next door over for dinner one night. He set a lovely table. Earlier that day the priest realized that he did not have any dinner napkins for his table. So he looked up "napkin" in his English dictionary. He went out, carefully read the package & bought napkins for his table. Well....you can imagine the look on the nuns' faces when they sat at the table & beside each place setting was a carefully placed sanitary napkin!!!