"like a herd of turtles"--Now B-17

[Geoffrey Steven Nathan]

We have one here in the Detroit area too. And every now and then it flies overhead. Keeps its bomb bay doors closed, though...
In fact, there's an air show here in August, and they're selling rides in it, in case anyone's interested.

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

----- Original Message -----

> From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 10:29:12 AM
> Subject: Re: "like a herd of turtles"

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "like a herd of turtles"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> No, but the B-17 had *four* big-ass fans.

> Besides big tail surfaces.

> Fun fact: I should say "has." Several years ago I was minding my own
> business in a western state when I heard the rumble of mighty
> engines. I
> looked up and, behold, there was a B-17 flying right over me at about
> 3,000
> feet. Nothing dropped out of it though.

> It seems that the Commemorative Air Force was in town. (Formerly
> "Confederate Air Force.")

> JL

> JL

> On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 10:18 AM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:

> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: "like a herd of turtles"
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Jun 10, 2014, at 8:28 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > > Obviously many did. My SWAG, however, is that the phrase came
> > > first,
> > > possibly in the buttless version.
> > >
> > > IIRC, that version didn't make it into HDAS because first, the
> > > cites were
> > > newer, and second, back in the "B's" I was maybe overly concerned
> > > about
> > > whether a phrase was "slang" or merely "kind of informal."
> > >
> > > Since big birds do take off, I opted for the latter. (To my way
> > > of
> > > thinking, the suffixation of "-ass[ed]" makes any adjective or
> > > verb
> > slang;
> > > but what do I know?)
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> >
> > So that makes you a Big Ass fan?
> >
> > LH
> > >
> > > On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 11:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >> -----------------------
> > >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > >> Subject: Re: "like a herd of turtles"
> > >>
> > >>
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>
> > >> On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 8:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> > wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Wilson, see HDAS sv "big-assed," adj.
> > >>>
> > >>> Or don't bother. "Take off like a big-assed bird" was in print
> > >>> by 1945.
> > >>>
> > >>> Otherwise:
> > >>>
> > >>> 1947 _Nashua Telegraph_ (June 27) 10 (NewspArch): Watch 'em
> > >>> take off
> > like
> > >>> a
> > >>> big bird,
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> I did see. That's why I didn't bother to note my intuition that
> > >> "take
> > off
> > >> like a big-assed bird" probably didn't originate among ground
> > >> troops. I
> > >> didn't think that the phrase was new in any interesting sense.
> > >> It's only
> > >> that, like "herd of turtles," it's something that I would be
> > >> unfamiliar
> > >> with, if not for my stint in the military.
> > >>
> > >> By 1945, did people still know that there was an actual
> > >> "big-assed
> > bird,"
> > >> the B-17, that could literally "take off"?
> > >> --
> > >> -Wilson
> > >> -----
> > >> 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.
> > >> -Mark Twain
> > >>
> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle
> > > the
> > truth."
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >

> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."

> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org