yankee swap/chinese auction

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Buddy-fucking" as a synonym for usu. petty treachery has a long history in the armed forces, with an apparent allusion (as "the buddy system" - NOT in the literal sense) as far back as the film "The Story of G.I.Joe" (1945).  How far back do the new-to-me "fuck your buddy/neighbor" poker names/games go?

And is anyone familiar with "the buddy system" in the secondary sense?

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: yankee swap/chinese auction
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At 11:10 AM -0500 12/13/04, Grant Barrett wrote:
>A branch of my family has done this for maybe ten years or so; they
>call it "rob your neighbor."

This concept seems analogous to a poker variant "Fuck your neighbor",
a.k.a. "Fuck your buddy" (not to be confused with the widely extant
drinking game, "Screw your buddy"), in which an unwanted card is
passed to the next player and so on.

>However, the presents are NOT opened until
>everyone has one and all forced trades have been made. This is what
>keeps it interesting: gifts are disguised, some people know what's in
>them, some people don't, some judge by weight, others by size, etc.,
>etc.
>
>In St. Croix, in the Virgins Islands, among the long-term but not local
>white off-islanders they called this "pirate Christmas" (also dating
>about ten years ago).
>
>(I think we have discussed this on the list before.)
>
>Grant Barrett
>
>
>On Dec 13, 2004, at 09:56, Dale Coye wrote:
>
>>Yesterday up here in New Hampshire I heard someone talking about
>>having a
>>Christmas party with a Yankee Swap. When it was described I realized
>>it was what
>>was called a Chinese Auction in New Jersey (this came to the list
>>several
>>years ago). It's where you have a fairly large group and everyone
>>brings a
>>present. Then numbers are drawn. Number one goes to the pile of
>>presents, picks
>>one and opens it, then number two can either pick a new one to open or
>>demand
>>number one's, and so on. If one present is particularly desirable it
>>can
>>exchange hands several times.
>>
>>Dale Coye
>>Wilton, New Hampshire


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