You're from Uruguay.

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:14 PM +0000 2/14/02, Herbert Stahlke wrote:
>Saudi Prince Bandar is reported to have used the
>expression "You're from Uruguay" in the following quote
>from the Feb. 9 Washington Post.
>
>'The message delivered by Bandar to national security
>adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin L.
>Powell was summarized by a senior Saudi official in
>these terms:
>
>'"We believe there has been a strategic decision by the
>United States that its national interest in the Middle
>East is 100-percent based on [Israeli Prime Minister
>Ariel] Sharon." This was America's right, the message
>continued, but Saudi Arabia could not accept the
>decision. "Starting from today, you're from Uruguay, as
>they say. You [Americans] go your way, I [Saudi Arabia]
>go my way. From now on, we will protect our national
>interests, regardless of where America's interests lie
>in the region."'
>
>The only Google hits are this one and the same story in
>the Feb. 11 International Herald Bulletin.
>
>What is this expression and where is it from?
>
>Herb Stahlke

It's from a reanalysis of the actual expression, "You go Uruguay and
I'll go mine".  No, I'd never heard that one either, but at least
there are a bunch of hits (19 to be exact) on google.  So "they"
don't exactly say "You're from Uruguay".  Most of the hits involve
the knock-knock version:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Uruguay.
Uruguay who?
Uruguay your way and I'll go mine.

larry