[Ads-l] banana (UNCLASSIFIED)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Searching uncovers a large variety of mnemonics. Here is a sampling.

Bye Bye Rosie Off You Go to Birmingham Via Great Western
Big Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins.
Big Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Grey Wins.
Big Beautiful Roses Occupy Your Garden But Violets Grow Wild

Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West.
Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Vacation goes Wrong.
Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Plan Goes Wrong. (p=purple for violet)
Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Values Go Wrong.
Better Be Right Or You're Gonna Be Violently Gouged With Golden Spaghetti

Beetle Bailey Runs Over Your General Before Very Good Witnesses.
Beach Bums Rarely Offer You Gatorade But Very Good Water.
Buster Brown Races Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins.
Blasphemous Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly
Bad Booze Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well

Bad Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly.
Bad Boys Race Our Young Girls Behind Victory Garden Walls
Bad Boys Run Our Young Girls Behind Victory Garden Walls.
Bad Boys Rape Only Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly.
Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly.
Bad boys raped our young girls, but Violet goes willingly.
Bad Boys Ruin Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly.
Bad Boys Rob Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly.

Black Beetles Running Over Your Garden Bring Very Grey Weather
Black Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly.
Black Birds Run Over Your Biting Visible Grey Worms
Black Bears Raid Our Yellow Green Bins Violently Grabbing Whatever
Goodies Smell Nice
Black Bananas Really Offend Your Girlfriend But Violets Get Welcomed

Bad Billy rapes our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Badly Burnt Resistors On Your Ground Bus Void General Warranty
Bat Brained Resistor Order You Gotta Be Very Good With
Billy Brown Ran Out Yelling Get Back Violet's Getting Wet
Bright Boys Rave Over Young Girls But Veto Getting Wed

On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 7:14 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Pretty sure I learned "Bad Boys . . . but Violet" back in the day.
>
> It works fine, with all three suggestive of the word, instead of one
> literally the word and two suggestive.
>
> bAd - blAck; bOys - brOwn; bUt - blUe.
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
> Sent: 10/31/2019 1:47:27 PM
> Subject: Re: banana (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: banana (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >You'll have noticed that "Bad boys" would have done just as well....
> >
> >JL
> >
> >On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 3:20 PM MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY CCDC
> >AVMC (USA) <0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> >>  CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> >>
> >>  >
> >>  > In any case, Edward Said's _Orientalism_ (1978) was the biggest nail in
> >>  the
> >>  > coffin and lexical re-orientation was de rigueur.
> >>  >
> >>  >  For people with degrees anyhow.
> >>  >
> >>
> >>  Oh, I have a degree - Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.  But
> >>  the standard mnemonic for color codes on resistors was taught to us with a
> >>  straight face ("Black boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly"
> >>  -- black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white)),
> >>  so whether or not "oriental" was offensive was completely off the radar.
> >>
> >>  (Wikipedia has a number of mnemonics which are not so racist or sexist,
> >>  but are also much less memorable.)
> >>
> >>
> >>  CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> >>
> >>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org