undewater basket weaving (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Yet many of the early cites emphasize the "cripness" of the course, not
its irrelevancy.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 1:10 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: undewater basket weaving (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: undewater basket weaving (UNCLASSIFIED)
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> --------
>
> Neither did I, because ca1970 the idea seemed clear to me that the
> defining
> nature of such a mythical (we thought) course was its seemingly
> intentional
> irrelevance to life, not necessarily its level of difficulty. Which,
of
> course, was held to be low: presumably you learned a few secret twists
> unknown to the public, and that was that.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: undewater basket weaving (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> >
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> ----------
> >
> > At 4:02 PM +0000 7/6/10, Charles C Doyle wrote:
> > >I remember the phrase well (from the early 1960s).  But I could
> > >never understand why underwater basket-weaving was supposed to seem
> > >EASY!
> > >
> > >--Charlie
> >
> > Good point.  Maybe it's to stress the abstruse and irrelevant
> > components of college courses rather than the easy part?  Strangely,
> > I never wondered about this before.
> >
> > LH
> >
> > >________________________________________
> > >From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf
of
> > >Mullins, Bill AMRDEC [Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL]
> > >Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 11:44 AM
> > >
> > >Boingboing has a post on the phrase "underwater basket weaving":
> > >
> > >http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/05/underwater-basket-we.html
> > >
> > >The original post has a N'archive cite from 1960; comments link to
a
> > >Wikipedia article that includes Sam Clement's 1956 cite (without
> credit
> > >to Sam).  I found a 1952 cite and posted it in the comments there
> (we'll
> > >see if it shows up), and will for posterity's sake include it here:
> > >
> > >_Cedar Rapids [IA] Gazette_, 3/6/1952, p 13 col 1
> > >
> > >"Other slangy speech and patter which came as a surprise to our
> panel of
> > >experts were: "Moose" and "crocodile" as nicknames for an unpopular
> > >girl, "ample samples" making reference to a well-liked food, and
> > >"underwater basket weaving" as a way of saying that a certain
course
> at
> > >school is a snap."
> > >
> > >Google books has what appears to be a 1953 cite from the
> Michiganensean,
> > >the yearbook of the Univ. of Michigan.  E-yearbooks.com has this in
> > >their archive, but I don't have an account there to check it.
> > >
> > >A related cite:
> > >_Yale Daily News_ 3/1/1941 p 2 col 2
> > >"For it must be known that Cindy had spent so much time doing her
> > >roommates' Basket Weaving that she had trouble with her own work."
> > >Context indicates this is a synonym for Home Ec.
> > >
> > >------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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