Acka-backa, soda cracker

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, Mark. My grandmother's version in full was,

Eenie, meenie, miney, mo,
Catch a kitten by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go.
Eenie, meenie, miney, mo!

At "mo!" you'd point to the child who was to be it.

Your own version is the way the other kids did it, with "tiger" and "Out goes Y-O-U !"  One could cheat by saying "You!" after the spelling and pointing to the next victim.

Observe the absence of subject-verb agreement in the chants of these preliterate people.

"Eenie, meenie, meenie, tekel upharsin,
Out goes Neboo!" ---Daniel.

JL




"Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mark A. Mandel"
Subject: Re: Acka-backa, soda cracker
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Laurence Horn said:
>>>
Curious the way these choosing rituals incorporated ethnic slurs. In
our neighborhood (Washington Heights, NYC, c. 1950) it was always

Eenie meenie meinie moe
Catch a tiger by the toe
If he hollers let him go
My mother said to pick this very one
Y-O-U spells you


<<<

NYC,fifties: same except that the last line was "out goes Y-O-U".


mark by hand

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