More old GI slang

[Harrold Wilson Gray]

Oh, I understood your point, Jon. I don't have a problem with that. I
was just <blush!> remembering my early days on the site. [What's wrong
with you people? I remember that it dates to at least 1941, because I
heard it on December 7, 1941, and the next day, December 8, is the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Mary Immaculate is the patron
saint of the United States. What American Catholic would forget that?
And December 7, 1941, was also one year before Pearl Harbor. What
red-blooded American of whatever faith could forget that infamous day?!
If that's not documentation, then I don't know what is! Now, I
recognize that I didn't know.]

-Wilson

On Apr 3, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:


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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: More old GI slang
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>
> I didn't mean to discourage you, Wilson.  Far from it.  All I meant
> was that I don't know the phrase and haven't seen it in print.  It
> seemed amusing to apply the word "literary" in this context.  You
> know, as a goak.
>
>   JL
>
>
> y at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: More old GI slang
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>
> "You live in shit!"
>
> Back in the late '50's and the early '60's, this phrase, with
> sentential stress on "shit," was used by white GI's to
> congratulate a person who'd unexpectedly had something
> especially good happen to him, such as being assigned
> to T[emporary]D[ut]Y, which both lowered one's work load and
> simultaneously raised one's pay.
>
> IAC, I've never been able to figure out the semantic reanalysis
> necessary to use something really bad to describle something
> really good. Of course, I realize that "bad" can mean "good."
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
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