Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

George, see the apocryphal HDAS III.  For some reason in the U.S. it's
"piss" that the designee cannot pour from the boot.  Even if the boot has a
instructions *and* a spout.

Just a cultural thing, I guess.

JL

On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 10:38 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There is a put-down that I think I saw in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy, that
> someone was too dumb to pour sand out of a boot, even if the instructions
> were printed on the heel.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Date: Sunday, August 1, 2010 8:56 pm
> Subject: Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > At 8:38 PM -0400 8/1/10, Mark Mandel wrote:
> > >I have a pair of Dockers brand pants, less than a year old, that have
> > "ONE
> > >LEG AT A TIME" printed in red letters an inch high on the inside of the
> > >waistband, right front.
> > >
> > >m a m
> >
> > Not quite rising to the level of the apocryphal Coke bottles in (pick
> > a country) with the legend on the bottom reading "OPEN OTHER END",
> > but...
> >
> > LH
> >
> > >
> > >On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 3:59 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> > >
> > >>  I remember a manual for US Army chemical officers (officers, not
> enlisted)
> > >>  that detailed all the tasks that a chemical officer needed to
> > know. The one
> > >>  for donning chemical protective gear included instructions such as
> > "put on
> > >>  pants one leg at a time, fly facing front." The only non-intuitive
> > step in
> > >>  the task that actually required some instruction was lacing the
> chemical
> > >>  protective overboots--which were not like standard boots--and the
> > >>  instruction for that was simply "lace boots."
> > >>
> > >>  I'm convinced it was written by a captain who had been passed over
> > for
> > >>  promotion and was exacting a bit of revenge.
> > >>
> > >
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