up the yin-yang

[sclements at NEO.RR.COM]

It was "ying yang" to my college aged ears in 1963(about when I heard it).

No doubt in the forthcoming volume of Jon's work which dealt with the "Y's"

Sam Clements
---- Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM> wrote:
> On Sep 26, 2011, at 1:19 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 2:13 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >> 1976
> >
> > And it was already in use sixteen years earlier, when I first heard
> > it. My impression is that I first heard it in 1960 not because it was
> > new, but because I hadn't had sufficient social interaction with
> > college-grade white guys before that year. I don't think that the
> > phrase ever gained any traction among blacks. But, of course,
> >
> > Youneverknow.
> >
> > I recall "up the ying-yang" as the catchphrase of a former
> > barracksmate who retired a few years ago from the U of Chi as Deputy
> > Dean of Students and Dean of Services.
> >
> > That was Ed Turkington, all 6'8" of him, if there are any U of Chi
> > readers wondering who I mean.
>
> Thank you for this follow-up. Although both variants sound fine to me, "yin-yang" is, I think, the one I use and I didn't do a search for "up the ying-yang."
>
> Google Books has 1968.
>
> "A sense of dark," by William Malliol, Atheneum, page 47, http://ow.ly/6ECoj
>
> -----
> Quillan said, "Boy, hava-yes-sheba-sheba last night up the ying-yang!"
> -----
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org