snipe hunts

[Jonathan Lighter]

The HDAS files date the naval "snipe" from 1891.

JL

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 10:48 AM, Paul <paulzjoh at mtnhome.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul <paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM>
> Subject:      Re: snipe hunts
>
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>  Well, that's interesting, officer and or enlisted?  Never heard it
> during Korea on CA124. But I was a lofty fire control tech.
>
> On 9/21/2010 8:02 AM, Bill Palmer wrote:
> > In the ships of the US Navy, the engineers are called "snipes".
> >
> > Bill Palmer
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Barbara Need" <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> > To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 7:19 AM
> > Subject: Re: snipe hunts
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: snipe hunts
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> >> I knew about snipe hunts before I knew about snipe--and actually
> >> thought that snipe were mythical beasts! I was quite surprised to find
> >> otherwise.
> >>
> >> Barbara
> >>
> >> Barbara Need
> >> Ithaca
> >>
>  >> On 20 Sep 2010, at 11:49 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>
> >>> At 9/20/2010 11:05 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:
> >>>> In Straw Dogs (1971) the bad guys take Dustin Hoffman on a snipe
> >>>> hunt. Story
> >>>> takes place in England and Hoffman's character, being American, has
> >>>> never
> >>>> heard of a snipe hunt and doesn't know it is a setup. The bad guys
> >>>> want to
> >>>> get him out of the house so they can rape his wife. I frankly don't
> >>>> remember
> >>>> if I knew what a snipe hunt was before seeing the movie in 1971 or
> >>>> not, but
> >>>> the point is the writer and/or director (Sam Peckinpah) figured it
> >>>> was a
> >>>> term Americans would not know.
> >>>
> >>> But I knew about snipe hunts in my youth, circa 1948-1950.  My
> >>> recollection is that one was proposed by the older male (summer)
> >>> campers for the younger.  It was clear what a snipe hunt involved --
> >>> going out with flashlights late at night (after the counselors had
> >>> done their bed check, which of course was part of the allure), to
> >>> find the elusive snipe.  Flashlights not to be turned on until the
> >>> snipe had been located.  I don't remember what was supposed to be so
> >>> interesting about them.  Perhaps that universal appeal to pubescent
> >>> males: to surprise someone in the act of copulation.  Nor do I
> >>> remember if the hunt actually took place and any of the gullible
> >>> went, but in any case I didn't.  (In those days I was very skeptical
> >>> of almost any proposal I heard.)
> >>>
> >>> Joel
> >>
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