does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Feb 14 07:26:09 UTC 2008
Yes. Those were the bad old days.
-Wilson
On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 2:08 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject: Re: does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have heard this sort of joke. I always interpreted it more along the
> lines of a person of an oppressed group finally having a way to get
> even. Kind of a "hah-hah". I got YOU this time. And if it's Tonto, all
> the better, for being called stupid. My interpretation is surely a
> reinterpretation based on changing times. BB
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> > I heard the punchline ca.1944 as "What you mean, 'we,' white man?" And
> > no mention was made of weapons. Of course, such jokes have many
> > different versions. I heard it in Saint Louis from a white neighbor
> > boy and I took its point to be that, when the deal goes down, white
> > people can not trust the non-white and I didn't find it humorous at
> > all.
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On 2/14/08, 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: does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> BTW, I am indeed white. I've only been called paleface in Makah, though,
> >>>
> >> >never in English. BB
> >>
> >>
> >> The line "Whaddya mean 'we,' paleface?" is from a joke -- I thought I
> >> had mentioned it here before, but I am perhaps mistaken. It goes like
> >> this: The Lone Ranger and Tonto are holed up in a high crag, on the
> >> run from large numbers of highly irritated Indians who, perhaps, have
> >> wearied of being targets for LR's bullets. The look to the north:
> >> Indians. To the south: Indians. To the east: Indians. To the west:
> >> ...uh... yup, more Indians. LR turns to Tonto and says, "Well, Tonto,
> >> looks like we're surrounded." Tonto turns, reaches for his weapon,
> >> and says, "Whaddya mean 'we,' paleface?"
> >>
> >>
> >> James Harbeck, who is probably even paler than you (and occasionally
> >> beyond the pale). Even if he did grow up on and near an Indian
> >> reserve.
> >>
> >>
>
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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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