Book on Vietnam War Slang

[Jonathan Lighter]

Never heard of it. Who is "we"?

I'd like to know what "chemical agent" used in Vietnam actually had that
effect.


JL


On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 9:06 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Book on Vietnam War Slang
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For those interested in war slang, here's the title of a recently
> published=
>  book: _Vietnam War Slang_, by slang researcher Tom Dalzell and published
> b=
> y Routledge.  I believe it's the most comprehensive compilation of
>  materia=
> l on the topic thus far.=20
>
> I'll cite just one item of interest (selected at random):
> "HOWDY DOODY (nn.)  -- an unspecified chemical agent. US.
> I've found out that those other men were drenched by a chemical spray
> we called Howdy Doody -- because it made you stiffen up and jerk=20
> like you were hanging on strings.--- [source of quote]: Robert R. McCammon,
> Blue World, p. 81, 1991."
>
> Gerald Cohen=
>
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