Re: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

On May 4, 7:04=A0pm, Jette <bossl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> David Friedman wrote:
> > In article <20080504.2100.80501004s...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > =A0v$af$pp...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ("ppint. at pplay") wrote:
>
> >> - hi; in rasfwr article,
<ddfr-9BB088.22412103052...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> >> =A0 =A0 =A0d...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 "David Friedman"
compounded:
> >>> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0mike weber <fair****t...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >>>> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Jette <bossl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >>>>> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0David Friedman wrote:
>
> >>>>>> Wogs start at Calais. Everyone knows that.
> >>>>> That's "Frogs". The other is a very offensive term for "people
with
> >>>>> a touch of the tar-stick about them".
> >>>> Actually, i forget where the line David quoted appears originally,
bu=
t
> >>>> it's pretty much a direct quote of a fairly well-known line, and
th[e=
]
> >>>> word was definitely "wogs".
>
> You can get as many hits as you like on Google, but it's the "Frogs"
> version that actually gets _said_ in Britain. =A0Probably because the
> kind of person who says it doesn't do much in the way of "that
> internetty stuff" and the kind of person who does hears it wrong.

Really? Maybe now, but when I lived there (68-78), you only heard
the 'wogs' version. Using 'frogs' sounds to me like an attempt to
retain the phrase in a somewhat less offensive form.

=46rom the ever trustworthy Wikipedia:

- quote -

The saying "The wogs begin at Calais" was originated by George Wigg,
Labour MP for Dudley, in 1945. In a parliamentary debate concerning
the Burmese, Wigg shouted at the Tory benches, "The Honourable
Gentleman and his friends think they are all 'wogs'. Indeed, the Right
Honourable Member for Woodford [i.e. Winston Churchill] thinks that
the 'wogs' begin at Calais." Wigg's coinage, sometimes paraphrased as
"Wogs start at the Channel" or "Wogs start at Dover", is used to
characterise a stodgy Europhobic viewpoint, and more generally the
view that Britain (more so England) is inherently separate from (and
superior to) the Continent. In this case, "wog" is used to compare any
foreign, non-English person to those more traditionally labeled
"wogs".

- end quote -

pt