[Ads-l] 100 attaboys (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

See HDAS for a relevant sense of "attaboy."



On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 1:08 PM MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM
AMRDEC (USA) <0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> _Ottawa [Ontario, Canada] Journal_ 24 Apr 1976 p 24 col 1
> ["At long last, the mystery of the South Ottawa Rotary Club 'ATTA-BOY'
> trophy has been fully explained.
> As the certificate and trophy explain, the 'ATTA-BOY' award qualifies the
> recipient to be a leader of men, to work overtime with a smile.  The
> exclamation of one word (which is censured by this corner) wipes out the
> advantages bestowed with the award, and recipient starts toward yet another
> outstanding performance."]
>
>
>
> Alfred G. Santos, MAJ, MSC "An Office Automation Needs Assessment Model"
> Masters Thesis, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 1985. p. 79
> https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a209692.pdf
> "ten attaboys wiped out out [sic] by 1 aw-- sh--."
>
> St. Petersburg FL _Tampa Bay Times Citrus Times Edition_ 23 Aug 1987 p 2
> col 1
> "One aw-shucks wipes out 30 attaboys, and we know there's a lot of
> aw-shucks out there."
>
>
> _Odessa [TX] American_ 21 Aug 1990 p 9 col 1
> "Put another way, a thousand 'attaboys' are canceled by one 'oh doo-doo'".
>
>
> _Kokomo [IN] Tribune_ 3 Nov 1991 p 6 col 6
> "Aw shucks.  One aw shucks cancels all previous attaboys."
>
> Rochester NY _Democrat and Chronicle)_ 8 Jun 2000 p 14 col 2
> "Each business or organization I have worked for, from the military to
> industry to retailing, has made it clear that one 'Oh spit!' can wipe out
> your entire stockpile of 'Attaboys!' "
>
>
>
> Alexandria LA _Town Talk_ 19 Dec 2001 p B9 col 2
> "This just reaffirms the old saying that one oh heck wipes out all the
> atta-boys of dedication to preservation and conservation of our outdoor
> heritage and habitats."
>
> _Manhattan [KS] Mercury_ 11 Mar 2007 p C8 col 4
> "One counter productive act in that field can quickly wipe out several
> hundred 'attaboys' ".
>
>
> And, the alternate view:
>
> Salem OR _Statesman Journal_ 8 Jul 1997 p 6 col
> "One 'attaboy' can wipe out 10 'oh-damns.' "
>
>
>
> > ----
> >
> > Former Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on CNN notes "There's a saying in the Army,"
> > which he went on "to clean up for your viewers": "One 'Oh, shucks'
> cancels one hundred 'Attaboys.'"
> >
> > Prosaically, "A single blunder outweighs one hundred laudable actions."
> >
> > Less than a dozen Google hits.
> >
> > 1995  Edward M. Marshall _Transforming the Way We Work_ [N.Y.: American
> Management Association] 35: Perhaps one of the most
> > difficult work environments is one in which 'one mistake is worth 100
> attaboys.' In a constantly changing work environment, it needs to be
> > okay for people to make some mistakes.
> >
> > JL
> >
> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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