[Ads-l] O'Grady says antedating; slap-neck

[Jonathan Lighter]

And another, also ref. to 1918:

1923 Leonard Nason in _Adventure_ (Feb. 10) 52: After the heart-breaking
labor of the training camp, the standing to heel, the spit and polish,
O'Grady and the Limey shuffle, a life of ease was doubly welcome. ... "I'm
tellin' you they'll be havin' us playin' O'Grady around these fields yet."

An AEF veteran, Nason was a prolific writer of World War fiction.

The "Limey shuffle" may refer to a British form of drill, but I'm only
guessing.

JL


JL

On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 2:33 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> This is the British equivalent of Simon Says (1856).  OED has 1930.
>
> 1921 Ardern Beaman _The Squadroon_ (London: John Lane) 142 [ref. to 1918]:
> The snow lay too deep for football, so we played instead "O'Grady says,"
> "Slap-neck," "Follow-my-Leader," and anything else we could think of.
>
> Kingley Amis published a memorable poem inspired by "O'Grady Says" in 1962.
>
> "Slap-neck" is unrecorded.
>
> JL
>
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