preadolescent "tortures"

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:34 PM -0400 9/30/06, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On 9/30/06, Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>>
>>I've been trying to dredge up the names of some of the "tortures" we
>>inflicted on one another when I was eight or nine. I recall the
>>Indian wrist burn (sometimes called the Chinese wrist burn, if memory
>>serves, where you twisted your hands around someone's wrists in
>>opposite directions), and an Indian scalp something-or-other.
>
>HDAS has "Indian burn" (applied to the forearm) and "Dutch rub" or
>"Indian rub" (applied to the head).
>
>Many more listed here:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_prank
>http://www.pranksonline.com/encyclopedia
>
I remember "short sheeting" (described at the first of those sites)
and "pink belly" (described at the second), both mostly from summer
camp.  (Actually, Geoff and I were classmates when we were eight or
nine, but we didn't go to the same summer camp, so there's nothing
personal here.)

LH

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