ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207) WARNING: WAY OFF-TOPIC

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 28, 2005, at 7:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
>               WARNING: WAY OFF-TOPIC
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Reminds me of the famous Bill Mauldin cartoon with the two army
> officers standing on a crag gazing at the sun setting behind the Alps.
>  One says, "Lovely view. Is there one for the enlisted men ? "

I *love* this one! IMHO, it's the military caste system in a nutshell
and probably the greatest military cartoon of all time.

>
> In _Catch-22_, Col. Cathcart asks the Chaplain in astonishment, "You
> mean the enlisted men pray to the same God we do ?...And he listens ?
> ? ? ?"

This one is also great.

-Wilson

> As for recent recruiting slogans, take "The Marines Are Looking for a
> Few Good Men" and "The Few. The Proud. The Marines," and cf. with the
> Army's "Be All You Can Be" and "An Army of One," undoubtedly the
> dumbest yet.
>
> Will look up the Duncan feature.  His "police action" photos from 1950
> - 51 set a new standard for combat photography, though Rosenthal's Iwo
> Jima flag-raising picture may be said to have ushered in the new age.
> (A somewhat comparable photo, which manages to suggest the
> unpicturesque grubbiness of the whole enterprise in a way that
> Rosenthal's doesn't, is the Russian picture of their flag going up
> over the Reichstag.)
>
> It became fashionable even before Vietnam to claim that Rosenthal's
> photo was some kind of fake but no, it was just a lucky shot.
>
> When it was first printed in _Life_ magazine, a Marine general
> remarked, "This means there'll be a Marine Corps for the next thousand
> years."
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Speaking of marine memoirists, did you see the op-ed article in the NYT
> by famed former-marine combat photographer, David Douglas Duncan? It
> features a portion of his famous photograph of the marine with the
> thousand-yard stare. I first came across this phrase in some
> space-combat science-fiction story of the '50's. It had been slightly
> modified to read "thousand-parsec stare."
>
> The article also recounts the story that this marine, when asked what
> he wanted for Christmas, replied, "Just give me tomorrow."
>
> And, speaking of slogans, there's really no comparison between their
> "Semper Fidelis" and the Army's bland and nearly devoid of meaning
> "This we will defend!" Even we GI's mocked this as "This We'll
> Defend?", a phrase most often found as a graffito over the hole of a
> field outhouse for enlisted men. (The bodily wastes of enlisted men are
> not permitted to fraternize with the bodily wastes of commissioned
> officers, nor may enlisted ass besmirch a toilet seat set aside for of
> commissioned ass.)
>
> -Wilson
>
>
> On Jul 28, 2005, at 7:37 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> Ever notice how coverage of the Iraq War emphasizes Marine activities
>> ? At the time they were talking of eliminating the Corps, President
>> Truman observed "The Marines have a propaganda machine bigger than
>> Stalin's."
>>
>> That, cool recruiting slogans, and those nifty dress blues. Seriously
>> though, over the last sixty years the Marines may have produced more
>> novelists and memoirists, in proportion to their numbers, than any of
>> the other services.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> Wilson Gray wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> Right as rain, as usual, Jon. "Drill sergeant," never "DS," it is. In
>> my day, drill sergeants were addressed simply as "sergeant." And, of
>> course, "basic training" is still called "basic."
>>
>> I remember the plan to fold the Marine Corps into the Army. At the
>> time, it was said that it wasn't bad enough that the Navy had to have
>> its own air force, but it also even had to have its own army, the
>> marines!
>>
>> Since those days, the influence of the Marine Corps has only grown.
>> The
>> designations of some Army enlisted grades have been changed to match
>> the terms used by the Marines, e.g, the "private first class" of my
>> day
>> is the Marine Corps-like "lance corporal" of today, with an insigne
>> based on that of the Marine Corps.
>>
>> FWIW, The Red Army called its marines by a name that translates as
>> "maritime infantry." In Soviet days, there was only the Red Army, to
>> which the Military Air Forces and the Military Maritime Fleet were
>> subordinate.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> On Jul 27, 2005, at 10:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -
>>> -
>>> --------
>>>
>>> Just for the record, my perception of the distribution of "drill
>>> instructor" / "DI" matches Wilson's. It was a Marine Corps expression
>>> long before it became popular in reference to the army. However, I
>>> don't believe it antedates World War II. Even during Vietnam, I
>>> believe that the Army term was "drill sergeant" (not abbreviated to "
>>> *DS" , by the way) - which the USMC had once used routinely as well.
>>>
>>> During World War I, the Marines used a combination of naval and
>>> military terminology, often referring to themselves as "soldiers" (as
>>> in the cliche', "soldiers of the sea"). But during World War II
>>> especially, a movement got underway to emphasize the unique (as well
>>> as the naval) characteristics of the Marines.
>>>
>>> After WWII this tendency was accelerated, especially after a
>>> short-lived post-war political movement to dismantle the Marine Corps
>>> and place it under Army command.
>>>
>>> Like "drill instructor," "boot camp" was generally restricted to the
>>> Naval services until long after WWII. I think the Army itself still
>>> frowns on its use..
>>>
>>> JL
>>> Wilson Gray wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -
>>> -
>>> --------
>>>
>>> On Jul 26, 2005, at 2:46 PM, James A. Landau wrote:
>>>
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>> Poster: "James A. Landau"
>>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> -
>>>> -
>>>> -
>>>> --------
>>>>
>>>> of no particular importance, but they strike my curiosity
>>>>
>>>> In a message dated Mon, 25 Jul 2005 18:16:16 -0500, "Mullins, Bill"
>>>> _Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL_ (mailto:Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL) cites:
>>>>
>>>>> THE ARGOT OF THE STUDIO WORKERS By GLENDON ALLVINE.
>>>>> New York Times; Feb 3, 1935; pg. X4 col 4.
>>>>>
>>>>> OFF TO BUFFALO -- Hurry up, or exit with all possible speed."
>>>>
>>>> is this perhaps related to the expression "shuffle off to Buffalo"?
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "PIG -- Current transformer."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "pig" for "transformer" is electrical power jargon since at least
>>>> the
>>>> mid-60's, when I heard it from an electrical engineer roommate in
>>>> college. Most
>>>> commonly found as "pole pig", a transformer up on a telephone pole.
>>>>
>>>> A wild guess at the etymology is that a transformer resembles an
>>>> ingot
>>>> of
>>>> iron in shape and perhaps in size, and cast iron ingots have been
>>>> referred to as
>>>> "pig iron" since, according to one account, Catalan ironworkers
>>>> invented
>>>> cast iron back in the Middle Ages. The reason for the term "pig
>>>> iron" is that
>>>> the ingots in their molds reminded the ironworkers of a mother pig
>>>> feeding her
>>>> piglets.
>>>>
>>>> Wilson Gray writes :"Remember when "uptight" was "up
>>>> tight" and also had a positive meaning that was once more widespread
>>>> than the negative one?"
>>>>
>>>> This may not be very relevant, but when I was in Basic Training in
>>>> 1969 a
>>>> sergeant when he wanted to compliment you said "your shit is up
>>>> tight".
>>>
>>> You got an actual compliment from a cadre member while still in
>>> Basic?
>>> That *is* up tight, not to mention outta sight! You must have been
>>> some
>>> "sharp soldier," if that phrase was still used in your day,
>>>
>>>> I've
>>>> never been able to hear the term "uptight" since without thinking of
>>>> a
>>>> DI.
>>>
>>> In my day - late '50's - "D[ril]I[instructor]" was only a marine
>>> expression disdained by the War (black GI slang term for the Army).
>>> Unfortunately, I'm having a senior moment and I can't recall what the
>>> term in use was in those days. I "have an inkling in the back of my
>>> thinking-cap" that "instructor" was also part of the Army term, but
>>> that's all I can come up with.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Wilson Gray writes "FWIW, The Movie Channel once showed brief
>>>> infomercials
>>>> between movies.
>>>> The one that featured gaffer's tape showed it looking a lot more
>>>> like
>>>> what I know as "electrician's tape" - smooth, black, stretchy
>>>> plastic
>>>> -
>>>> and not at all like duck/duct tape - textured, silvery, non-stretchy
>>>> cloth"
>>>>
>>>> A problem here is that, back in the 1950's when my father was
>>>> teaching
>>>> me
>>>> carpentry and wiring, there was no such thing as
>>>
>>>> "electrician's tape".
>>>
>>> To paraphrase a line from an old movie, "Among yidn, a goy is no yid,
>>> But, among goyim, a goy can be a yid." That is, though electricians
>>> may
>>> know that there's no such thing as "electrician's tape,"
>>> non-electricians "know" that there is. It's like civilians not
>>> knowing
>>> the difference between "As you were!" and "Carry on!"
>>>
>>> -Wilson Gray
>>>
>>>> Instead
>>>> an electrician had to use two different pieces of tape to seal a
>>>> join
>>>> in an
>>>> electrical wire. First he used a rough-surfaced non-stretchy black
>>>> tape
>>>> which may have been cloth---certainly it did not feel like plastic.
>>>> This layer
>>>> provided the elecrical insulation but had poor adhesive
>>>> qualities---it stuck
>>>> just enough to stay in place while waiting for the second layer..
>>>> Then over
>>>> the first layer he used a tape that was either rubber or plastic (I
>>>> don't
>>>> remember which) and may have been stretchy.. This tape provided good
>>>> adhesion and
>>>> kept the inner layer in place, as well as providing a protective
>>>> covering
>>>> over the inner layer.. One of these two tapes (I don't remember
>>>> which) was
>>>> called "friction tape".
>>>>
>>>> - James A. Landau
>>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________
>>> Do You Yahoo!?
>>> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>>> http://mail.yahoo.com
>>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________
>> Do You Yahoo!?
>> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>> http://mail.yahoo.com
>>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>