till

[Scot LaFaive]

>In WWII Saint Louis, it was:

>Q. What time is it?
>A. Half pas' the monkey's ass and a quarter to his nuts.

And we had that during WWIII (the Cold War, according to some) in the 80's
in WI.

Half past a monkey's ass and quarter to his balls.



>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: till
>Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:39:46 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: till
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>In WWII Saint Louis, it was:
>
>Q. What time is it?
>A. Half pas' the monkey's ass and a quarter to his nuts.
>
>Even then, this reply was essentially noise, but, WTF? It had "ass"
>and "nuts" in it. What more could a grade-school boy ask for?
>
>I should point out that "half pas(t)" occurred only in this locution
>and not in ordinary speech. To quote Richard Pryor:
>
>Q. "What y'all waitin' for?"
>A. "'Leven-thirty. Don't nothin' start happenin' till eleven-thirty."
>
>Later.
>Much later.
>Later for the happenings.
>[Once the coolest of the cool ways to say, "Catch you later."]
>
>-Wilson
>-Wilson
>
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 7/20/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: till
> >
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It was the same for me in the '50s in Minnesota.  Dubuque is on the
>River,
> > right?  It may or may not have shifted to "till" in the past 50 years,
>with
> > the general sweep of Midland speech across Iowa and beyond.  What do you
> > hear these days?  (And btw, we used "to" both with and without the noun,
> > like you.)
> >
> >
> > At 04:45 PM 7/20/2007, you wrote:
> > >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >-----------------------
> > >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >Poster:       Bill Lemay <blemay0 at MCHSI.COM>
> > >Subject:      Re: till
> >
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >Here in Dubuque, Iowa, growing up in the late 1950s, I heard "to" most
>often.
> > >This facilitated the following exchange:
> > >
> > >"What time is it?"
> > >"Ten to."
> > >"Ten to what?!"
> > >"Ten(d) to your own business!"
> > >
> > >Bill Le May
> > >
> > >------------------------------------------------------------
> > >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>--
>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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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