dialect tidbit

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

When I hear 'Good night, nurse' I think of Archie Bunker who said it fairly frequently.  I don't think I've ever heard it off TV, tho.  However, I use "Good night, Irene!"  I have no idea who Irene is.  I tend not to make up things like that, but I do not know where I got it. Has anyone else heard that?
Fritz J

>>> kurtpatt4 at NETSCAPE.NET 09/22/04 04:35PM >>>
I've heard "Good night!" used (don't think I've used it myself) in the
context Peter mentions below.  I also remember hearing people say "Good
night nurse!" to mean the same thing (an exclamation of surprise and/or
dismay).

Our family generally used "For Pete's sake!" to mean the same sort of thing.

I've not heard "good day!" in that context, but it's not hard to see how
it could mean that.

FYI:  born in the late 1950's and grew up in Pittsburgh.  So "good
night" may be an age thing : )

Patti Kurtz
Minot State University

pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: dialect tidbit
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Some of the replies to this message seem to have veered toward literal uses
>of expressions like these, whereas I think Beverly's question had to do
>with figurative uses.
>
>In my childhood (40s and 50s), "Good night!" was my family's all-purpose
>interjection for emotions ranging from surprise to shock to exasperation.
>I wasn't conscious of it fading from our repertoire, but I haven't used it
>or heard anyone else use it in, probably, 40 years or more.  Its demise was
>probably due to fading taboos against the use of mild profanity (I presume
>this one arose as a euphemism for "Good God!").  A few years ago my mother
>mentioned that that was the strongest language her father (who was from
>East Texas) ever used.
>
>I didn't find it in DARE.  The OED has it, labeled "dial." and with a
>single occurrence, from the 19th century.
>
>Did anybody else grow up using this, or was it just our family?  Or is it
>peculiar to East Texas, or just "an age thing"?
>
>Peter
>
>--On Wednesday, September 22, 2004 3:26 PM -0400 Beverly Flanigan
><flanigan at OHIOU.EDU> wrote:
>
>
>

Freeman - And what drives you on, fighting the monster?



Straker - I don't know, something inside me I guess.



Freeman - It's called dedication.



Straker - Pig-headedness would be nearer.