Out Straight

I never had a problem with the saying "out straight" (meaning very busy) until the other day.

My friend Bill and I were playing telephone tag because he was going to forward me a contact at a company I'm trying to do business with. Anyway, in his last message Bill apologized for the delay in responding because he said he was out straight. Then Bill paused in his message and asked "what exactly does that mean? Out straight?"

Now Bill was a stand-up comic in a prior life so I knew there had to be extra meaning in his question. So I started pondering it and I realized I didn't know - "what does out straight really mean?"

In medical terms wouldn't "out straight" be the same as flatlining and doesn't flatlining mean dead? Isn't dead as opposite of busy as you can get? Maybe Bill was going for that sort of irony.

I also got the vision in my head of a bisexual man trying to decide what clubs to go to at night. Should he go out straight or go out gay?

When I spoke with Bill today I asked him about his observation on the literal meaning of "out straight" and he just said it was a throwaway line that occurred to him as he was leaving his message and nothing more.

Maybe just a throwaway line to him but now whenever someone uses the phrase "out straight" I'm going to have the picture of one of the Queer Eye guys going into cardiac arrest in my head.

Thanks Bill. Thanks a lot!