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It’s that time of year again

My, how time flies when you’re terribly, terribly old. Yes, it’s that time of year again — Weasel’s Birthday Month. I’m taking the first week of May off work (and blog), as is my wont.

I shall leave you with these nifty placeholder graphics, however, and I encourage you to turn up and shoot the breeze.

Comments


Comment from DurnedYankee
Time: April 30, 2018, 4:48 pm

Not that you’ll answer because week off and all that but…

“shoot the breeze” is that even remotely colloquial English?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 30, 2018, 6:44 pm

Oh, I’m here. The internet is of several opinions, as always.

“Etymonline gives a first use of 1941 for “shoot the breeze” without a citation. But OED2 has a 1941 first use as well, with a citation: Guide to U.S. Naval Academy 149 — but the usage there isn’t exactly the modern usage: “Breeze, shoot the, to refight the Civil War, etc.”. There’s a 1943 citation that represents the modern usage, though. I’m inclined to think that 1941 one captured only the “waste of time in conversation” sense without the specific “idle chat” sense. Since it settled down to “idle chat” by 1943 and stayed there it’s probably a safe bet that the term did originate in the early 1940s.”

But elsewhere, the first use is given as 1919. It doesn’t say where, but I assume the US.

Refighting the Civil War sounds like a plausible origin to me.


Comment from DurnedYankee
Time: April 30, 2018, 7:34 pm

Colloquial, if you’re a Yankee then. You may have been born in the south but you’re a Yankee, by article 6 of the DurnedYankee theory of Yankee-ness.

1) You were born in Maine, you are a Yankee, you are proud of it. Those other idiots in the remaining 5 “New England” states think they’re Yankees, but they are just a bunch of damnfool city slickers who think you travel “up” to Maine.

2) You were born in New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI) You’re a Yankee, though perhaps you don’t think of yourself as one because you never leave the Rt 128 Boundary of Boston, except to go to New York City or California. You discover reality when you wander south of the Mason Dixon line.

3) You’re from New York or New Jersey – you may think you are a Yankee, but you are not. Perhaps honorary at best.

4) You were born in any of the states that formed Lincoln’s Onion in 1861 and cooperated in the War of Northern Aggression, and you’re south of the Mason Dixon line.

5) You’re in Texas, and you’re from north of the Red River.
If you visit you are only a Yankee.
If you stay you are a DamnedYankee.

6) You’re an American and you’re someplace other than the United States.

PS – you provide me with a good reminder – Mrs. Durned is also a May child. Never trust a woman who tells you she doesn’t want anything for her birthday enough to not get her anything for her birthday.


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: April 30, 2018, 9:11 pm

Hmmm…. somebody mentioned that the Celebrity Dead Pool is out of whack. I just checked my entry and new entries for the “current prognostications” and got last CDB rather than the new one….


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 30, 2018, 9:23 pm

Dead Pool fixed. Should be Round 108, and it was missing the deadpool tag (which is why it didn’t turn up when you clicked).


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: April 30, 2018, 11:28 pm

@S. Weasel
Fast Work, Weasel!

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