"Don=?windows-1252?Q?=92t_?=let the door hit you in the butt on the way out"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Have you ever walked out through a screen door on a spring hinge? You have
to walk out pretty quickly to avoid having it hit you...

DanG


On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 5:55 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:
>  =?windows-1252?Q?Re=3A_=22Don=92t_let_the_door_hit_you_in_the_bu?
>               = =?windows-1252?Q?tt_on_the_way_out=22?=
>
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>
> I think I would say the standard form I know is "Don't let the door hit
> you on the way out." I didn't rip that off of anyone. It's something I have
> heard for as long as I can remember.
>
> Although I understand it means "Scram and don't return," I've never
> understood the imagery, so I don't use it. It seems to be some sort of
> sarcasm, implying that even the door wants to get rid of you so bad, that
> it's prepared to hit the person in the behind.
>
> The expression that Wilson provides doesn't elucidate the imagery at all
> for me.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> On Nov 3, 2012, at 2:42 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc., wrote thus.
> >
> > Y'all, the expression is,
> >
> > "Don't let the screendoor hit you
> > Where the good Lord split you"
> >
> > See there? It make since! <har! har!>  Iss the punchline of a whole
> > lot of traditional jokes referencing, e.g. a preacher downing
> > congregants walking out on his sermon, If y'all are going to rip us
> > off, *please* get it right. It ain't really no need for to half-ass
> > black oral tradition into incoherence!
>
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