Pedants' Paradise

[jean]

... sorry, you've lost me here - what has Vinegar Joe got to do with all this??

...The phrase originated during World War II. Lexicographer Eric Partridge attributes it to British army intelligence very early in the war (using the plural dative/ablative illegitimis). The phrase was adopted by US Army General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell as his motto during the war. It was later further popularized in the US by 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater...

No self-respecting feminist would want to be associated with Goldwater, either.

[vinteuil]

...The phrase was adopted by US Army General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell .

... ah, thanks for that.

He seems a nice kinda chap - the following from wiki (and warning in advance - most of the following is offensive... ) -


'[Barbara] Tuchman ... notes his use in his letters and diaries of a catalogue of now insulting words which she says "he used easily and seemingly without pejorative content": these included "limeys for the English, frogs for the French ("met a frog and his wife on shipboard"), huns and squareheads for Germans, wops for Italians, chinks or chinos for Chinese, googs for Filipinos, niggers or coons for Negroes", while at the end of the war Tuchman says he took "a harsh pleasure in touring the gutted and burned-out districts of Yokohama and staring at the once arrogant [Japanese] now living in shanties of scrap lumber and tin and scratching in the dirt to plant onions". His diary entry for 1 September 1945 (in Yokohama) reads in part: "What a kick to stare at the arrogant, ugly, moon-faced, buck-toothed, bowlegged bastards, and realize where this puts them. Many newly demobilized soldiers around. Most police salute. People generally just apathetic. We gloated over the destruction & came in at 3:00 feeling fine".'

I think I need to have a wash.


.

[Bryn]

... ah, thanks for that.

He seems a nice kinda chap - the following from wiki (and warning in advance - most of the following is offensive... ) -


'[Barbara] Tuchman ... notes his use in his letters and diaries of a catalogue of now insulting words which she says "he used easily and seemingly without pejorative content": these included "limeys for the English, frogs for the French ("met a frog and his wife on shipboard"), huns and squareheads for Germans, wops for Italians, chinks or chinos for Chinese, googs for Filipinos, niggers or coons for Negroes", while at the end of the war Tuchman says he took "a harsh pleasure in touring the gutted and burned-out districts of Yokohama and staring at the once arrogant [Japanese] now living in shanties of scrap lumber and tin and scratching in the dirt to plant onions". His diary entry for 1 September 1945 (in Yokohama) reads in part: "What a kick to stare at the arrogant, ugly, moon-faced, buck-toothed, bowlegged bastards, and realize where this puts them. Many newly demobilized soldiers around. Most police salute. People generally just apathetic. We gloated over the destruction & came in at 3:00 feeling fine".'

I think I need to have a wash.


.

An ideal candidate for the Gilead leadership, indeed.

[Bryn]

What on earth are you talking about?

Hmm, looks like I will have to try short words. The way US Army General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell is said to have been would make him the right type to be high up in the Republic of Gilead.

Time to give The Handmaid's Tale by Poul Ruders as spin.

[jean]

Well, I did delete the post you replied to, since it seemed impossible that I would get a reply that made any sense at all.

I wasn't wrong.

[Padraig]

Well, I did delete the post you replied to, since it seemed impossible that I would get a reply that made any sense at all.

I wasn't wrong.

How do we know, jean? You destroyed the evidence.

[jean]

No I didn't - Bryn's reply is there, along with the text of the post I deleted.

[Bryn]

How do we know, jean? You destroyed the evidence.

I quoted the question concerned in post #3544, so the 'evidence' was not actually destroyed. It did, however, lose its context. I get the feeling that it's not only frenchie who has not read the work in question. Also, it does not help when messages are posted which do not quote or specifically identify the post to which they respond.

[jean]

If a post follows immediately upon another post, it may be assumed that that is the post it's replying to. This is a reply to your last, which I therefore do not need to quote.

There's plenty more I could say, but I am tired of being accused of things I have never said, and of my questions going unanswered.

[ahinton]

If a post follows immediately upon another post, it may be assumed that that is the post it's replying to. This is a reply to your last, which I therefore do not need to quote.

There's plenty more I could say, but I am tired of being accused of things I have never said, and of my questions going unanswered.

...(zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)...

[french frank]

Ockam's Razor suggests to me that she just misremembered the joke from her schooldays.

Yes.

[Bryn]

[french frank]

[Bryn]

Surely?

[french frank]