apparently I'm a bigoted hypocrite (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Dave Wilton]

It's not limited to schools. The first version I heard was a Democrat and Republican. (I can't remember which was which, as if it mattered.)


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 11:20 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: apparently I'm a bigoted hypocrite (UNCLASSIFIED)

A variant from '53:

Two college guys are in a restroom, having a leak. When they finish, A stops to wash his hands. B proceeds to the the door.

A. "At Yale, one is instructed to wash one's hands after one has urinated."

B. "At Harvard, we know better than to piss on our hands."

All things considered, you'd expect that permutations of this joke would be told everywhere. But, IME, it's a hapax told to me by a Harvard man.

--
-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


On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: apparently I'm a bigoted hypocrite (UNCLASSIFIED)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> The joke appears in Terry Southern's oft-reprinted essay, "Twirling at
> Ole Miss" (Esquire, February, 1963).
>
> As I recall it, "Southern" appears in Oxford looking for directions to
> the university.  He sees a bunch of old guys whittlin'.  Not wanting
> them to realize he's a pointy-headed Yankee journalist, he
> deliberately reverts to the rural speech of his Texas youth and asks, "Whur the school?"
>
> The unfriendly reply is, "Reckon you mean, 'Whur the school _at_,
> stranger!'"
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:22 AM, 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: apparently I'm a bigoted hypocrite (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
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>> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: apparently I'm a bigoted hypocrite (UNCLASSIFIED)
>> >
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>> ------
>> > -
>> >
>> > For the past 30 years, I've heard the exact same anecdote with the
>> exact same
>> > punchline, but with Harvard in place of Vanderbuilt (and a suitable
>> location
>> > substitution for the target of the directions question). There is
>> every
>> > indication, that the joke has been around at least another 30 years
>> before
>> > that. I would be surprised to find that Stanford and Chicago don't
>> have their
>> > own suitably modified versions.
>> >
>> >      VS-)
>>
>> No doubt.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >
>> > On 9/28/2012 10:04 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>> > > I grew up in Nashville, home of Vanderbilt Univ. In the circles I
>> ran
>> > > in, Vandy was thought of as snooty, and was perceived as
>> > > presenting itself as a Southern Ivy League school full of
>> > > students from
>> old-money
>> > > families. (all stereotypes, and I didn't have anywhere near
>> > > enough personal knowledge of the school to say that they were
>> > > based in reality or not). Thus, the following anecdote (which
>> > > isn't true, but was repeated as if it were): I was at Vandy's
>> > > campus, looking for
>> the
>> > > Sarratt Center (student union building) where a movie was being
>> shown
>> > > that I wanted to see. I didn't know the campus, so I asked a
>> > > student walking by, "Excuse me, can you tell me where the Sarratt
>> > > Center is at?" "Sir, you are at Vanderbilt University, and at
>> > > Vanderbilt, we don't end a sentence with a preposition."
>> > > (Previous sentence pronounced with full Grey Poupon/Thurston
>> > > Howell III snootiness.)
>> "Oh.
>> > > Well then, can you tell me where the Sarratt Center is at, asshole?"
>> > > When we were juniors in high school, this was really funny.
>> >
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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