Soup Sandwich; When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout

[Jonathan Lighter]

I first heard "When in danger or in doubt..." in 1963 from a high-school teacher who'd learned it in the Navy during WWII.

It also appears in Herman Wouk's WWII Navy novel, _The Caine Mutiny_  (1951; rpt. N.Y.: Dell, 1969), p. 120 (ch. 10).

Another of my teacher's WWII sayings was, "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer."

I have seen this elsewhere also.

JL

"Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Baker, John"
Subject: Re: Soup Sandwich; When in danger or in doubt, run in circles,
scream and shout
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Heinlein used "When in danger or in doubt . . . Run in
circles, scream and shout" in Time Enough for Love in 1973 and liked it
enough that he used it again in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls in 1985.
I don't know whether it was original with him or not. Here's the
context from Time Enough for Love:

<<"No ship and no assets - what do you _do_? Remember, I'm
depending on you - or I'm stuck back in the Dark Ages. What do you do?"

"'When in danger or doubt . . Run in circles, scream and shout'"
recited Dora.>>

Note the use of single quotes and the word "recited," indicating
that Dora is quoting, which I suppose is still consistent with the
possibility that Heinlein made it up. My recollection from reading Time
Enough for Love in the 1970s was that the phrase began "When in danger
or IN doubt," but Amazon.com's version lacks the "in" before "doubt."

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Bapopik at AOL.COM
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2005 3:03 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Soup Sandwich; When in danger or in doubt, run in circles,
scream and shout

I found these two while looking up some ambulance slang. Does Fred have
the latter?
...
...
WRONG AS A SOUP SANDWICH--7 Google hits, 4 Google Groups hits SLOPPY AS
A SOUP SANDWICH--156 Google hits, 140 Google Groups hits CRAZY AS A SOUP
SANDWICH--315 Google hits, 154 Google Groups hits WHEN IN DANGER, OR IN
DOUBT, RUN IN CIRCLES, SCREAM AND SHOUT-- WHEN IN DANGER + SCREAM AND
SHOUT--8,190 Google hits, 7,710 Google Groups hits


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