shit or go blind WAS Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917))

[Dennis Preston]

More rather than less. I'm 3471.

dInIs

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: shit or go blind WAS Rastus (was: "Jazz Means
>Happy and Loose
>               Like" (1917))
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>At 9:31 PM -0500 12/9/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>Unfortunately, I know it only from my years in the military in the
>>late 'Fifties and early 'Sixties. I may be the only person that I now
>>know who uses the expression.
>
>Mebbe so, but there are 3470 people (more or less) you don't know who
>still do, including some who want to know why.  I like the first hit,
>which informs us that it's "a euphemism for an impossible situation".
>So a disjunction with "shit" as the first disjunct is used as a
>euphemism to avoid referring directly to the socially taboo notion of
>impossible situations.  (With euphemisms like that, who needs
>dysphemisms?)
>
>LH
>
>>I like it because it's essentially
>>meaningless. But then, that's its point.
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>On Dec 9, 2007 7:57 PM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
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>>>   Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>   Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>>>   Subject:      Re: shit or go blind WAS Rastus (was: "Jazz Means
>>>Happy and Loose
>>>                 Like" (1917))
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>   >not knowing whether
>>>   >to shit or go blind
>>>
>>>   I love that expression and have not succeeded so far in finding an
>>>   account of its origin. Any ideas, y'all?
>>>
>>>   James Harbeck.
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>                                                -Sam'l Clemens
>>
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>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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