1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it mean?

[paul johnson]

Paul johnson
It was a popular story in boot camp, in San Diego, in 1950.  But there
were a lot of popular stories back then.

On 4/29/2012 11:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Cultural mystery: given its seeming frequency, why are there so few
> references in print to this practice, particularly in the twentieth
> century?  With 16,000,000 WW2 veterans in 1945, and thousands interviewed
> or writing their own accounts, why does GB seem to show only a dozen refs.?
>   Censorship couldn't have been an issue.
>
> I searched GB for "cigarette + hole + sergeant."  Likewise in
> NewspaperArchive.  (Most hits were irrelevant to the topic.)
>
> Some may recall my posts of yesteryear querying why "Yeah" (and spelling
> variants) hardly ever appears in print before ca1900.  There's no such
> problem with the far more notoriously "illiterate" _ain't_.
>
>
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 12:11 PM, Gerald Cohen<gcohen at mst.edu>  wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Gerald Cohen<gcohen at MST.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: 1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it
>> mean?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> My campus has an eminent military historian (Dr. John McManus) who
>> specializes in WWII, and I asked him whether he ever came across
>> mention of the cigarette internment/funeral in the course of his
>> extensive conversations with WWII veterans.
>>
>> With his permission I now share his reply below.
>>
>> Gerald Cohen
>> Missouri University of Science and Technology
>> Rolla, MO 65409
>>
>> [Reply]:
>>
>> Jerry,
>> I have heard reference to the six by six punishment many times.  This
>> punishment was standard in those days for a multiplicity of infractions,
>> not
>> just the littering of a company street with cigarette butts.  In fact, this
>> practice became infamous to later generations of basic trainees since by
>> then the Army had discarded it as too draconian.  I must admit that I have
>> never heard the word "butthole" used in this context though!  My suspicion
>> is that by the time I spoke to WWII veterans many years later--or read
>> their
>> recollections--they all knew that the word had a much different connotation
>> and thus did not use it in describing the six by six treatment.
>> [....]
>>
>> John
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
> --
> "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

--
You're never too old to learn something stupid.

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