Chinese

[Bob Haas]

Could the dripping version of the CWT have been devised by the sinister Dr.
Fu Manchu?  I've no idea since I've not read any of the books from the
series; I've only seen the parody of the films THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU
MANCHU, which starred Peter Sellers and Helen Mirren.  The exercise in
dripping sounds like something that just such an evil genius would come up
with.

Any readers of Sax Rohmer out there?  I wonder why Fu Manchu and Doc Savage
never squared off?

bh

> From: Lynne Murphy <lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 14:27:32 +0000
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Chinese
>
> I don't know about the origins of "Chinese water torture".  I've noticed it
> refered to recently as just "water torture" (e.g., in the song 'Basement
> apartment' by Sarah Harmer)--no doubt to get away from the ethnic
> slurriness of the "Chinese" part.
>
> As someone else mentioned, I always understood that the point of CWT was to
> drive the person crazy and this is why it transfers so well to dripping
> taps, as in Harmer's song.