"That bites the big one!"

[Jonathan Lighter]

In 1959 or '60 I saw kids in a Central Park playground playing Marco Polo
without water.

I don't know if it was the same game otherwise, because I wasn't invited to
play. Ever.

IIRC, one kid faced away with her eyes closed.  Two other kids would try to
sneak up on her.  Somebody yelled "Marco!" Somebody yelled "Polo!"  The two
kids would freeze.

Who'd want to play a stupid game like that anyway?  I had better things to
do! _I'd_ show them!

JL

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 8:09 AM, 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:      Re: "That bites the big one!"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Valuable comments. Sounds like "It bites!" is as old as "It sucks!"  Is
> that likely?   During a detailed discussion in 2004, Wilson attested to the
> earliest known occurrences of "It sucks," from 1959. Presumably "It sucks!"
> had been around for a while.  (See Archives under "SUX.")
>
> HDAS has "bite" only from 1971, "bite the big one" from 1977.  No "bite the
> meat."
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 6:53 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "That bites the big one!"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > I recall "that bites" and "that bites the big one" from throughout my
> > childhood. There is no gap in usage from the 1960s to the present in my
> > experience.
> >
> > And the game Marco Polo was (is?) a very common swimming pool game. I
> > played it many times. It's a variant of blind man's buff in which the
> > person who is "it" can say "marco" and the other players must say "polo"
> =
> in
> > response as a means of aural assistance.
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> > Of Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 1:29 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: "That bites the big one!"
> >
> > This was spoken by a female, college-student character in a movie from
> > 1999. This was the first time that I've heard anyone say that since I got
> > out of the Army in 1962.
> >
> > I heard "That bites!" while in the military and since then. I've always
> > assumed that the latter is a clip of the former, for no better reason
> tha=
> n
> > that it's "obvious." In the military, we also used, "That bites the meat"
> > and "=85 bites the green wienie!" And I've always considered all of
> these=
>  to
> > be variants of one another for the usual
> > reason: it's "obvious."
> >
> > I hadn't heard any of these before I joined the Army in 1959. But, of
> > course, there were hundreds of expressions that I heard first and used
> la=
> st
> > in the Army, including terminology, jargon, and slang.
> >
> > It all just depends, I think. For example, on TV, I've heard many
> > references to a game(?) called "marco polo" that's played only(?) in
> > swimming pools. It's assumed that the audience gets these references.
> > I don't get the references. By coincidence, I've never heard a single
> > reference to marco polo anywhere except on the tube.
> >
> > Another one is the game of "I spy." I know this game quite well as a
> > trivially-distinct variant of hide-and(-go)-seek. In movies and on TV, it
> > seems to be a kind of guessing game.
> >
> > Youneverknow.
> >
> > --
> > -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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> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --=20
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