noodleback

[Garson O'Toole]

There are some instances of a similar trope "noodle spine" starting in
1999 (or earlier). The 2010 instance refers to a person as a
noodle-spine. The 1999 instance uses the phrase "noodle spine types".
Some examples refer to the physical spine. The connotative
implications for the character of an individual with a "noodle spine"
vary. The 2008 example seems to be only about a physical condition:

Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: "D. Perry"
Date: 1999/02/20
Subject: Re: Message from Ruger
It is a sad commentary on today's society with the NICS but with
Feinstein, Schumer and all the other noodle spine types that don't
care about freedom, ...

Here are some unverified examples in Google Books:

How to Lasso a Cowboy
Jodi Thomas, Patricia Potter, Emily Carmichael - 2004 - 378 pages -
Google eBook - Preview
On his fifteenth birthday he'd up and left. Colin had been both
furious and embarrassed that his only son "had a limp noodle spine."

Athena Force: Books 1-6 - Page 211
Justine Davis - 2006 - Google eBook - Preview
Bravado starched up the man's noodle spine now that the shock had worn off.

Stability, Sport, and Performance Movement: Great Technique ... - Page 273
Joanne Elphinston - 2008 - 351 pages - Preview
The difference in feeling between a neutral (arrow) spine and an
unstable (noodle) spine.

King of Sword and Sky
C. L. Wilson - 2010 - 480 pages - Google eBook - Preview
Honestly, Lillis could be such a noodle-spine. “He's been here all
week, and all the guards wave at him when he walks by.

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 8:44 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:      noodleback
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 2011
> http://personals.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2011/03/tea-party-rails-against-budget-deal
> (March
> 31):
> But at the [Tea Party] rally, GOP leaders were in the crosshairs. Katherine
> Dirr, an activist from Boehner's district, told the crowd: "I say to the
> Republican leadership -- take off your lace panties, stop being noodlebacks.
> Our republic depends on you."
>
> JL
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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