Phat [was Re: gay/ghey/ghay]

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 4, 2004, at 3:44 PM, sagehen wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Phat [was Re: gay/ghey/ghay]
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>  Doug Wilson writes:
>>  The "situation normal"
>> part has the smell of a backronym. I could be wrong, of course.
>>
>> --
> It doesn't seem too unlikely to me that "situation normal" was an
> actual
> expression in use, though whether as /legitimate/ military jargon or
> mocking slang I wouldn't guess.  The army classified things with pretty
> hilarious labels, from a native English-speaking POV.  We had for years
> kicking about among our belongings an OD cloth object with a label
> which
> read "Cover Bag Sleeping Mountain," a relic of my partner's WWII
> service.
> If he is a representative example,  both "snafu" & "fubar" were used
> by GIs
> ('43-'45) in the understanding that they were indeed acronyms.
> A. Murie
>
>
> A&M Murie
> N. Bangor NY
> sagehen at westelcom.com

Figmo "fuck it; got my orders," probably belongs in the same class as
snafu and fubar. For you civilians out there, the point is that, having
*in hand* orders - FNE W/P O/A etc. - transferring you from post A to
post B, you are no longer subject to the rules and regulations in
effect at post A and not yet subject to the rules and regulations in
effect at post B. You've received a mini-furlough. I emphasize "in
hand" because knowledge is not power in the military. It has to be
backed up with paperwork.

-Wilson Gray
>