Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

[Seán Fitzpatrick]

Outside Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s, I learned of the "Catch a nigger by his toe" version when a teen-aged playground monitor cautioned us to say "tiger" instead.  Well, who doesn't ?, I thought.

Wilson Gray wrote:
<<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.>>

Besides the underwater obstacle, I have heard "niggerhead" applied to a kind of broadleaf lawn weed.  It sends up a thin stalk (thinner than a dandelion stem) topped by a tight seed cluster that has a nubbly texture somewhat like the standard pre-Afro Negro hair style. (More often seen on women nowadays.)  My father referred to them as "whiskers".  To a lad just taking up the responsibility of lawnmowing, the weeds were more annoying than dandelions.  The stalks bent out of the way of the reel-type push mower and had to be clipped or cut with a grass whip. 

Seán Fitzpatrick
Beer is good food
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