Heard on The Judges: and yet they live!

[Wilson Gray]

Oh, I knew that you were aware of it. That's why I aimed the post at
you, knowing that it would have more meaning for you than for random
other people. There seem to be quite a few Google hits. But, I can't
recall whether I checked Google the first around. Probably didn't.

-Wilson

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 7:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: and yet they live!
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>>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 kno=
> w
> 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
>> =96=96=96
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint t=
> o
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> =96Mark Twain
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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>



--
-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