defense = verb

[Page Stephens]

Ben asked :-) if they make the same joke about the Battle of New Orleans?

If I can be included in they, they have.

"We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin'..." btw comes from the
ballad "The Battle of New Orleans" by the late Jimmie Driftwood nee James
Morris of Timbo Arkansas.

Jimmie set it to the old fiddle tune "The Eighth of January".

The most famous recording of it was by Johnny Horton.

Page Stephens

 > [Original Message]
> From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 11/11/2005 1:39:00 AM
> Subject: Re: defense = verb
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: defense = verb
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>
> On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:56:47 -0600, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>
> >That reminds me:
> >
> >Why was the ground slippery at Bunker Hill?
> >
> >The British kept coming and coming . . . .
>
> Do they make the same joke about the Battle of New Orleans?
>
> "We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin'..."
>
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer