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

[thomas gebhart]

Central Iowa was tiger by the toe, as was the Milwaukee that I and my
mother's family knew.

beth simon
associate professor, linguistics and english
indiana university purdue university
simon at ipfw.edu

"Aaron E. Drews" wrote:
>
> }
> }Eny, meny, miny, mo
> }
> }The rhyme at the end remained common in Milwaukee until at least the 1940s
> }and possibly even longer.
> }      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.)
> }
>
> Strange.  I only ever heard "catch a tiger by the toe", and both my
> parents come from Milwaukee.  On the other hand, my wife never heard the
> "tiger" version.  Then again, the civil rights movement and the NAACP and
> the changes in language they helped bring about weren't exactly as
> popular in Scotland.
>
> --Aaron
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
> aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
> http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics
>
> "MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
>         --Death