[Ads-l] Heard on a "judge=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9D_?=show:

[Wilson Gray]

> IIRC, Gene Evans  puts a pin back in a grenade in Sam Fuller’s _The Steel
> Helmet_ (1951).

I don’t recall that scene. But that is to say only that I don’t recall the
scene and not that there was no such scene.

Since this flick is on YouTube, I’ve eyeballed it and there _is_ such a
scene. The pin _is_ put back into a grenade, @ ca.36:39. Unfortunately, YT
has framed the flick in such a way that it’s not possible to see how it’s
done. How the pin could have come out without being pulled out by accident,
in the first place, is left to the viewer’s imagination.

What I found more interesting is that there is a Japanese-American GI in
the flick named _Tanaka_ “middle of the field.” I’ve read somewhere - Mario
Pei? - this this is the most common surname in Japanese. And his nickname
is “Buddha-Head”! I saw this movie when I was still living in StL. I can’t
*recall* hearing this term used until 1963, when I was living in L.A.
and “buddha-head” was used by both Negroes and Sansei, which latter,
together with whites, referred to Negroes as “colored,” whereas whites
used “little nose” for Asians.

Here in the Pocono Mountains of PA, where I now live, “colored” still flies
among white people as the ordinary term for anyone of sub-Saharan ancestry.
E.g. a young - 52 y.o. - mentioned to me that a guy that she was dating had
a “colored” son, having once been married to a “colored” woman.

Since HDAS and Green’s both missed this use of “Buddha-Head” in the movie,
too, too, this occurrence in the movie counts as an interdating. ;-)

On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 2:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> IIRC, Gene Evans  puts a pin back in a grenade in Sam Fuller's _The Steel
> Helmet_ (1951).
>
> Other than that, I can't recall a single instance of this trope in the
> umpteen bazillion war movies I've watched since ca1960.
>
> The usual old-movie cliche' is pulling the pin with your teeth.
>
> Not recommended, even with a great dental plan.
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Aug 27, 2017 at 6:46 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > WG:  << with _put a pin in it_ which is also _a common phrase associated
> > with moving on or putting something on hold_" >>
> > WB:  I.e., putting a pin back in the grenade. Heard that enuf in movies.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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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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>



-- 
-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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