Heard on The Judges: and yet they live!

[Jonathan Lighter]

>>This is the first time that I've heard "ripping and running" spoken in
perhaps seventy years and the first time that I've come across it at
all, since the publication of the book with that title in 1973.<<

Thanks, Wilson. Of course I've read that book and (HOLY CRAP IT WAS ALMOST
FORTY YEARS AGO!) and cited it.  As is so often true, "rippin' and runnin'"
seems to be one of those BE idioms that needed the Civil Rights mOvement to
get into print.

I've seen it a number of times since. IIRC, the book associated it
specifically with theft, app. under the infl. of the then recently
popularized to "rip somebody off."

Whether to _rip off _ goes back a whole lot farther than ca1968 I don't know
offhand. Sounds like it "should," but we know that's no criterion.

JL

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Heard on The Judges: and yet they live!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This one's primarily for Jon:
>
> Mid-twenty-ish, black male speaker from Buffalo, NY:
>
> "I didn't have no time, your honor! As it was, I was _ripping and
> running_ and trying to do everything at the same time!"
>
>
> This is the first time that I've heard "ripping and running" spoken in
> perhaps seventy years and the first time that I've come across it at
> all, since the publication of the book with that title in 1973.
>
>
> Mid-seventy-ish, silver-haired, white male speaker:
>
> "Well, your honor, it was back in 'aught-six. I was ..."
>
> Judge:
>
> I hope that that's *twenty*-aught-six! How old are you?!"
>
>
> It wasn't made clear, but the speaker was undoubtedly just funning. I
> really doubt that this man could possibly have been over a hundred
> years old.
>
> -Wilson
> –––
> 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.
> –Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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