Heard on The judges: "Ripping and running"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I remember 'em. They sang "Meadowlands."

Somehow they even made that sound scary.

I believe the 1960s "entrenching tool" was essentially unchanged from that
of 1917.  Or earlier. Like dirt itself.

JL

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 7:20 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The judges: "Ripping and running"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 7:27 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > the survivalist-type, short-handled (about 40 cm long) multi-tool that
> has a
> > digging blade--the type that's sometimes associated with the
> Soviet/Russian army.
>
> The version used by the U.S. Army in my day - when "Red Army" was
> still the only term available for denominating the Soviet Army,
> though, as has been pointed out here, "Soviet Army" was already the
> *official* term as far back as During The War - was called an
> "entrenching tool," thereby avoiding the problem of having to decide
> whether to call a spade a spade. <har! ar!> It had a folding blade so
> that it could be hung comfortably - yeah, right - from your
> pistol-belt (known as a "web[bed] belt," in other branches of service,
> I believe). Only officers were issued pistols with holsters for
> attachment to this belt.
>
> Does anyone else remember the _Red_ Army Chorus, so-called into the
> '60's, at least, despite the official usage?
> --
> -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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