The African Dodger (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"African dodger" is not in OED.

Here's one found serendipitously - and used metaphorically.

1956 S. L. A. Marshall _Pork Chop Hill_ (N.Y.: Morrow) 147: The Chinese
grenadiers played African dodger, revealing head and shoulders just long
enough to heave their potato mashers.

 The earliest from NewspArch:

1889 _Boston Globe_ (Aug. 11) 19: But the African dodger still lives.

JL

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 7:00 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: The African Dodger (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>
> I'm confused -- I thought that the purpose was to hit the African Dodger
> in the head with a baseball, but the referenced book talks about hitting
> a plunger and making the Bobo drop into the water, like a modern dunking
> booth (although it also references hitting him in the head -- like I
> said, it's confusing.)
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of
> > Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:34 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: The African Dodger
> >
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      The African Dodger
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> > -
> >
> > On p.15 of this GB book, the African Dodger is called, "The Bobo."
> >
> > http://goo.gl/odqsw
> >
> > --
> > -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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