New F-word Proverb: The Acronyms

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Aug 14 01:40:11 UTC 2007


FWIW; when I was a child in Saint Louis in the 'Forties, we used to
say, "Fight           [= Noun] fair fiss!" (I've always assumed that
the last word was "fist," though, in a formulaic expression, it could
well have been "fists.") This meant that the fighters were restricted
to using a semblance of the Queensberry rules. You couldn't just take
and go upside your opponent's head with a brick.

-Wilson

On 8/13/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      New F-word Proverb: The Acronyms
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 2004 rec.gambling.poker http://groups.google.com/group/rec.gambling.poker/browse_frm/thread/a1197a1367c02b5/6c530f9a571841f1?lnk=st&q=FFOGFYG&rnum=1#6c530f9a571841f1 (Mar.7): Do people have more or less freedom in a society with no laws, I wonder? Depends on the person and depends on the number of laws, I'd guess. DaveM My hero, Wild Bill Hickock, did just fine with or without them. Those with less ability with a pistol were mostly in favor of them. FFOGFYG
>
>   2005 Tony Holmes _US Navy Hornet Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom Part Two_ (Oxford: Osprey Publishing Co.) 95 [ref. to 2003]: And the initials [on the airplane] FFGFYG "Fist Fight [sic] or Go for Your Gun."
>
>   JL
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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