preadolescent "tortures"

[Joanne M. Despres]

I guess this wasn't really a torture, but I recall being given (and
probably giving) a "bug shot" in the form of a punch with the pinky-
finger side of the fist on someone's upper arm.  I seem to
remember it as a kind of inoculation against infection, though for
what I can't remember -- maybe coodies from touching a member
of the opposite sex?

In the area of psychological torment, there was also the convention
of automatically tearing down the treehouses of those outside one's
most intimate social circle.  I don't know how commonplace that
was for others -- maybe I grew up with a bunch of little sociopaths.

Joanne

On 30 Sep 2006, at 10:47, Geoffrey Nunberg 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. And, of
> course, the noogie and wedgie (but did we call it that then?), though
> those were more on the order of opportunistic maneuvers that didn't
> have the deliberate character of the others. Any help appreciated.
>
> Geoff  Nunberg
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org