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

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS has collected many exx., mostly military. It is very common in writings about WWII by veterans.

  Variant: " ...or wind my watch."

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: shit or go blind WAS Rastus (was: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose
Like" (1917))
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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. I like it because it's essentially
meaningless. But then, that's its point.

-Wilson

On Dec 9, 2007 7:57 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: James Harbeck
> 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.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
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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