dot-com wanes; eny, meny, miny, mo

[storkrn]

I learned it in Connecticut in the early 50's as

Eeny, meeny, miny, mo
Catch a nigger by the toe
If he hollers let him go
Out goes Y- O- U

Also, the "potato" for us was

One potato, two potato
Three potato, four
Five potato, six potato
Seven  - potato -  MORE


----- Original Message -----
From: "A. Vine" <avine at ENG.SUN.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: dot-com wanes; eny, meny, miny, mo


> Eeny, meeny, miny, mo
> Catch a tiger by its/the toe
> If he hollers make him pay
> Fifty dollars every day
>
> My mother told me to pick this one cause I was naugh-ty
> (My mother told me to pick the o-ther one when I was naugh-ty)
> (also "mo-ther")
>
> This was used in choosing "it" for games.  Like "potatoes" - incidentally,
if
> you've ever seen the movie "Assault on Precinct 13", there was a bit of
comic
> relief (actually a lot, depending on how you look at it) when a person had
to be
> chosen to make a break for it.  I don't remember the exact line, but it
was
> decided to use the "potatoes" method, at which point the men broke into:
>
> One potato, two potato,
> Three potato, four
> Kiss my -ss and
> Spit on the floor
>
> Andrea
>
> Laurence Horn wrote:
> >
> > It would be interesting to try to pin down the replacement pattern--by
the
> > late 40's in New York, the only version around our part of town was
"catch
> > a tiger by the toe", and I was amazed when I learned the existence of
the
> > earlier one.
> >
> > larry
> >
> > >
> > >Eny, meny, miny, mo
> > >
> > >The rhyme at the end remained common in Milwaukee until at least the
1940s
> > >and possibly even longer.
> > >akra
> > >
> > >
> > >      The favorite in Milwaukee at the present time seems to be: "Eny,
meny,
> > >miny, mo, catch a nigger by the toe; if he hollers, let him go--eny,
meny,
> > >miny mo."  Doubtless the list could be indefinitely extended.--PECK'S
SUN
> > >MAN.)
>