Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

[Wilson Gray]

Oh. Okay. I got it.

WRT the underwater obstruction, the point is that such an object is
very hard, as the head of a black person was once widely reputed to be.
It was believed that a black person could suffer no harm from a good
beating, as long as all blows were directed to and landed on his head.
The uncharted underwater mountain peak that the submarine struck is a
perfect example of a niggerhead in the nautical sense.

About thirty years ago, former Senator Hollings, in a speech in which
he abjured his former stand-in-the-schoolhouse-door defense of
segregation, noted that he had seen with his own eyes black people who
had been beaten into imbecility by white people who truly believed that
they were just working off a little excess energy, having a little fun,
and not doing any permanent damage.

-Wilson Gray

On Jan 30, 2005, at 12:57 PM, sagehen wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> -Wilson Gray writes:
>> I was completely unaware of the term "nigger toe" till I was in the
>> Army in 1961.  A white, fellow G.I., also from Texas, explained it to
>> me. Of course, once I'd heard the explanation, the relevance of the
>> usage was immediately obvious. I have no idea what a "coneflower" is,
>> so you've lost me on that one. However, I do know "niggerhead," but
>> primarily as a literary term for an underwater obstruction that can
>> rip
>> out the bottom of a commercial fishing boat.
>>
> ~~~~~~~~~
> Coneflowers are composites. The one in question, /Rudbeckia
> occidentalis/,
> has a dome-shaped disc and is missing ray flowers altogether.  Sort of
> like
> Echinacea or Black-eyed susan without the outer ring of petals.
> AM
>
>
> ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>
>