Blue Streak

[Gary Leach]

My earliest distinct encounter with "blue streak" was in fifth grade,  
when our class clown got the attention of everyone in the lunchroom  
and told a very shaggy-dog joke in which the meaning of the term  
"blue streak" was the non-punchline. As far as the joke was concerned  
it could have been any term, though the "blue" did suggest something,  
well, suggestive.

In later life I've heard the term most often used in the context of  
someone speaking fast and rather relentlessly - "talking a blue  
streak." But it's always been that joke that's stuck in my mind.

Gary