ADS-L Digest - 2 Apr 2006 to 3 Apr 2006 (#2006-94)

[Landau, James]

In Basic Training (1969) I frequently heard the Drill Instructors use
the phrase "your shit is uptight", used as a compliment to a trainee who
did something right.

I have never heard this expression elsewhere.

      - James A. Landau

"White people have no souls" --- Baron Munchausen


"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: 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."

Maybe this is a version of "happy as a pig in shit"/"like pigs in
shit"/etc.?

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