peeties and more dice slang

[Mullins, Bill]

>
> Aces, Bill.  Now how about "snake eyes."
>

OED has 1929 for snake eyes

"SH-! NOT A WORD NOW, BUT BOYS'LL BE BOYS" Tennessee | Kingsport | The
Kingsport Times | 1920-03-26 p. 10 col 6.

"Ada, whose residence is to be Decatur, Ga., is popular, as is also a
lass yclept Phoebe. The Richards, Senior
and Junior, have become so familiar to the boys that they call them Big
Dick and Little Dick, and there's strange talk about sixty days on the
rock pile, snake eyes, throwing your arm off, box cars, slow death, and
so forth."

[Oddly enough, this article isn't about dice or craps, but about a
school which banned kids from shooting marbles "for keeps".  So, from
col 5, some marbles slang:

"It is admitted, according to persons in a position to know, that the
lads had been "knocking" marbles, and playing "roley hole" and shooting
"hog-eye" with reckless abandon and disregard of the value of clays,
chinas, glassies, crocks, and even aggies and steelies, indulging in
their wantonness to a degree that if unchecked would certainly lead to
their becoming real estate speculators, or, maybe worse yet, traders in
the pit or on the curb."  Note:  some communities in East Tennessee
still hold "roley hole" tournaments.]

[Note also "boxcars" (not in OED), and Ada from Decatur]

[advertisement for D. M. Read, a furniture company]
Connecticut | Bridgeport | The Bridgeport Telegram | 1921-08-24 p. 6 col
6.
"Large cubes of featherweight balsa.  Dice, "old snake eyes." Roll them
anywhere."

BOY SLAYER OF "BAD MAN"
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File); Jan 21, 1924; pg. 20 col 3.
"Astrado made a cast.  He threw snake eyes, or so Ramos charged."

boxcars [see above]

"The Fun Shop" Maxson Foxhall Judell.
Connecticut | Bridgeport | The Bridgeport Telegram | 1927-11-21 p. 4 col
5.
"De dice am clickin' so fast you'd think you was in a telegraph office,
and Nappy makes ebery point on de dice and some dat wasn't on 'em-
Little Joe, Feber in de South, Five and a Half, Sixty Days, Two Months
and a Half, Eighter From Decatur, Eight and Three Quarters, Three
Boxcars and the Caboose-he -made 'em so fast dat he had to change to
asbestos dice when de others burned up! "

On A Cold Trail.
(Memphis Commercial-Appeal.)
The Washington Post (1877-1954); Oct 3, 1937; pg. B8 col 6.
"Two is "Snake-eyes," and four is "Little Joe."  Five is either "Fever"
or "Phoebe," and an eight is an "Eighter from Decatur."  A nine is "Nina
from Palestina," at least in some circles where the boys kneel and not
precisely in devotion.  A ten is "Big Dick from Dixie," and a twelve is
"Boxcars," but three is just plain "Craps."

For the Abandonment of Symmetry in Game Theory
T. C. Schelling
The Review of Economics and Statistics > Vol. 41, No. 3 (Aug., 1959), p.
214 col 1.
"There are other ways, such as having the referee roll dice every few
minutes, calling off the game whenever he rolls boxcars."


hard eight

"Around Town"
Nevada | Reno | Nevada State Journal | 1952-05-04 p. 2 col 1.
"The whole thing came about because the Riverside's dice table offers
odds of "10 for 1" for the hard eight (two fours) instead of the
traditional "9 to 1" offered on the other dice tables in Reno. A man had
a dollar on the hard eight, won it, and got ten silver dollars."

 CRONIN'S CORNER NED CRONIN
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File); Oct 12, 1956; pg. C3 col 1.
"The foregoing is intended to establish the fact that just about all the
action that takes place in this famous retreat of the "hard eight and
easy go" routine is pretty much of a gamble."

Reno Churches Aren't Fading
By J. Alvin Kugelmass Special to The Washington Post
The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973); Dec 25, 1966; pg. E5 col
4.
"While disclaiming wagering, each without exception knew exactly how
much the hard eight earns and what boxcars entail."

Ada/Eighter from Decatur (see "Snake Eyes", above)

PAY DAY JOY IN MEXICO
The Washington Post 1877; Nov 19, 1916; pg. ES5 col 1.
"There is a great snapping of fingers, and the men bending over the
tables are heard to utter these mysterious cabalistic words:  "Come on,
Little Joe!" "Git him, seben!" "Baby needs a pair of shoes!"  "Eighter
from Decatur!" "

"TWO AND THREE" Bugs Baer
The Atlanta Constitution (1881-2001); Nov 23, 1919; pg. A2 col 4.

"Back to the office, where Citronella breaks out a pair of dice.  All
the girls separate their pennies from their chewing gum and aspirin
tablets, while Edith and a few visiting mannikins from the Debris
feminine harness shop squeak for first roll at the dotted caramels.
Simpie cops all the Darb.  She has a gentleman friend who is a padroller
and Simpie knows how to control the five. . . . The girls have their own
labels for the points.  Four is Little Josephine.  Eight is Ada, from
Decatur.  Nine is Nellie with the Long Green stockings.  Ten is Big Ben.
Two aces are Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia.  Eleven is the Prince of Wales
and twelve is your own fault."
[note also Darb and padroller]

"The Jelly Bean" F. Scott Fitzgerald
New York | Syracuse | The Syracuse Herald | 1921-01-16 magazine section
p. 2 col 6.
"Ada from Decatur rolled over the table."