Jeep

[Wilson Gray]

Given that I am in complete agreement withm Jon, it;s clearthat he is
obvopusly correct.

BTW, whatever happened to Oscar? People mention Popeye, Olive Oyl,
Swee'pea, Wimpy, etc., even the Jeep and the Sea-Hags. But it's as
though Oscar never existed.

FWIW, when I was in The War, the jeep was referred to by modapool
human resources as a "quarter-ton." Shortly before my ETS (estimated -
because, once that you'd signed that line, your ass was grass and the
military was the lawnmower - time of separation), a new, redesigned,
jeep-like vehicle made by Ford was introduced. I've seen them - well,
saw them, ca,1961-62 - in pictures, but never in the steel. I was a
bit brought down, since the replacement vehicle (I seem to recall that
there was a memo to the effect that the new vehicle was *not* to be
referred to as a "jeep") was the stake through the heart of the
once-famous Willys-Overland Co., marking the ultimate end of an era

Further BTW, the jeep was also well-known as "the *Willys* Jeep."
(This may have been Post-War or even post-Ford. Can't truly recall.)
If the "true" jeep was also manufactured by some other company - a
definite possibility During The War-Years - that company received no
credit that a grade-schooler of that era can recall, even though he
clearly recalls such entities as Curtiss-Wright, Consolidated-Vultee,
Chance-Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, the Bell Airacobra / Air Cobra, the
Models T and A, the Mutual Broadcasting Co., Kellog's Pep, Post (Corn)
Toasties, Hot Ralston, The Gold-Dust Twins, Chore-Girl and -Boy
scrubbing pads, etc., etc., etc.

-Wilson

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 7:58 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: Jeep
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The SD story is pretty accurate.  I researched ths question extensively for
> HDAS II and reported the significant findings in a column for the _Atlantic
> Monthly_ in the mid '90s.
>
> The biggest inaccuracy in SD is the suggestion that the term "jeep" was
> known to the military before the appearance of Eugene the Jeep in "Thimble
> Theatre" in 1936. This assertion has no basis AFAIK.
>
> Nor am I sure that the name "jeep" was ever given to a B-17 prototype. It
> may have been. It was, however, bestowed on one of Northrop Aircraft's N-1M
> Flying Wings prototypes as early as July, 1940.
>
> Elzie Segar's "Jeep" was so called app. because he said nothing but "Jeep!
> Jeep!"  My guess is that Segar intended it as a bass version of "Cheep!
> Cheep!"  He was magic and could do just about anything. (Or am I thinking of
> those annoying "iPad" commercials?)
>
> AFAICT, all applications of the name "jeep" ultimately go back to Segar's
> creation: small, new, odd, and unusually capable.
>
> As applied to recruits, "new and odd" was undoubtedly the operative idea.
>
> JL
> On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 3:44 PM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
>> Subject:      Jeep
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> If this is old hat, sorry. It was new hat for me. Discussion of origin of
>> Jeep at The Straight Dope, here.
>>
>> http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/336/did-some-japanese-soldiers-hold
>> -out-for-years-after-wwii
>> It's the second story, bottom of the page.
>> DAD
>>
>>
>>
>> If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
>>
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>
>
> --
> "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

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