Trivial note re "poop" = "information"

[Wilson Gray]

The OED On-Line has 1973 for its earliest cite for "poop" vs. "poop
sheet." When I was in the Army in the late 'Fifties, "the (straight)
poop" was a common expression. There was also a weekly ritual called,
officially, "Troop Orientation and Education" or "TO&E." At some
posts, this might be a half-holiday.

On other posts, TO&E could be merely a gathering of the members of a
unit in a post [movie] theater, at which the headlines of some
newspaper or other might be read aloud or the post chaplain, a poor
Southern Baptist, forgetting where he was, would remind us that,
despite our being free, white, and twenty-one, we were still sublect
to the laws of God and those of the military.

In this latter case, TO&E was known as "poop for the troops," punning
on poop's other meaning of (bull)shit.

-Wilson

--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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