i love the dance (movie, that is)

So this should settle with some finality the lingering question of whether or not I am really unhip: the other night I went to see Step Up, a movie that many teenage Yahoo users have declared the BEST MOVIE EVERRRRRRRR!!!!!! And I didn't go to this movie because someone coerced me. No, I saw this movie because I wanted to. You hear that? I wanted to.

I love dance movies and luckily I have two sisters who also love them, so we go to every one. Ok, we missed Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

Why do I love the dance movie?

1. The plot. Boy dances. Girl dances. Boy and/or girl feels uncertain about life and self. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl dance. Boy and girl find new certainty. Boy disappoints girl (or vice versa). Boy and girl no longer dance. Uncertainty returns. Boy dances, girl dances--alone (but what about the dance, all the steps they were learning together?). Camera moves from girl dancing, to boy dancing, to some climatic plot device, the camera moves faster, the music crescendos. Boy and girl realize they need each other. They dance. There is joy.

2. At the end of dance movies, people in the theater dance. They dance badly. And no one cares.

3. The one thing that I really wish I could do but cannot is dance. In my dreams, I am a tap dancer, break dancer, ballerina, fly girl. It all sounds good to me.

4. Because I watched Breakin' too many times when I was a kid. I think this is where it all started. We watched it all night once at a slumber party, so many times that by the morning I had every line memorized. I can still remember the pivotal scene Kelly and Ozone on the beach. The drama! (I never did see, however, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo)

a usage puzzle

You know those times when a certain word or phrase keeps popping up, as if the phrase wants to get noticed, has been feeling a little neglected, underappreciated. Recently, that phrase for me has been, strangely enough,"salty dog."

Usage #1: Recently I was listening to American Routes and Spitzer played a version of "The Salty Dog Blues," noting that "salty dog" was slang for a certain--ahem--oral activity.

Usage #2: Then, while visiting Friday Harbor, W. referred to some students returning from a seabound research trip as "salty dogs."

A few usages I don't want to think about: This led us to look for a defininitive defintion, including a trip to urbandictionary.com which provided some disturbing, yet amusing, alternative definitions. Not exactly what Spitzer was suggesting (far, far dirtier), but in the same direction.

It's not just me who wonders what this phrase means: Yesterday, while waiting for my iced coffee, one of the baristas referred to a customer as a "salty dog." Then she asked, "What does that mean? Is that dirty?" Someone suggested the sea-worn and ragged connotation, but there was still the lingering question.

So, you smarties, what's your take on "salty dog"? If we take "Salty Dog Blues," there's clear evidence for usage #2: "Standin on the corner with the low down blues/
Great big hole in the bottom of my shoes/ Honey let me be your Salty Dog." But with a bit of imagination, you can understand the logic of usage #1.

Anxiously waiting for your guesses, arguments and usage examples.