[Ads-l] movie notes, 1943

[Jonathan Lighter]

_Specif., _Salute to the Marines_, one of Wallace Beery's lesser efforts. I
heard a couple of noteworthy usages:

" 'That's a pretty tough outfit we're sending to the Orient.'... 'You're
staying right here in the Philippines.'"  ("Orient" = mainland East Asia,
specif. China.)

"Some day I'm gonna sit down on my stern-sheets and bawl my eyes out."
('_Naut_. hind-parts; specif., the rump'; not in OED. Cf. HDAS files:)

1882 Mark Twain _Life on the Mississippi_ (rpt. N.Y.: Signet, 1961) 117: He
had more selfish organs than any seven men in the world - all packed in the
stern-sheets of his skull.

a1950 in Horace P. Beck, Jr. "Down East Ballads" [U. of Pa. diss., 1950]
388: She yawed with her stern sheets.

1963 Daniel P. Gallery _Eight Bells_ (rpt. N.Y.: Paperback Library, 1965)
51: The army aviators couldn't hit a bull in the stern sheets with a big
bass fiddle.

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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