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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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My daughter asks if this board can pinpoint for her the origin of the phrase, "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy," or the like.
Can you please help her out, ladies and gentleman? Thank you.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Great question!  I can think of a lot of examples, but know not the origin.... [whiteness]The converse being: "How do you keep 'em down on the farm, now that they've seen gay Paree?" Origin: A WW1 song, probably misquoted.[unwhiteness]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Unbelieveably, I searched this on The Phrase Finder, and the only near-hit I got was this: The Phrase Finder is based in Sheffield, England so we have a special interest in
this phrase since that's where the eponymous 1990s film is set. No definitive
explanation of where the phrase originates has emerged though. The most often
repeated is the notion that it derives from the suit hire business of Sir Montague
Burton. A complete dress suit, for a wedding etc, would be the Full Monty.
Another explanation derives from a Spanish card game where the pile of cards
on the table is called a 'monte'. Yet another comes from Field Marshall
Montgomery's alleged habit of wearing his full set of medals, or even his alleged
insistence on a full English breakfast every day. Although the phrase has been in
circulation prior to the film there don't appear to be any instances of it
appearing in print before 1986. Does this now qualify as a haunting? 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I remember the phrase from WWII days, when it meant that US servicemen did not change much from going overseas. No clue has to origin.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A complete dress suit, for a wedding etc, would be the Full Monty.
And another sort of full Monty for after the wedding in the nuptial chambers.
What has haunted you, WON, by the way? And did you misread the question as "You can take the boy out of the monty, but can't take the monty out of the boy?"
Dub
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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What has haunted you, WON, by the way?Full Monty is haunting AWAD...evidently! and not even Uncle Tsuwm could ever confirm the etymology, there once were 3 Monty threads going at once...er, thrice!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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By the way, I'm not trying to steer away from Keiva's very intriguing inquiry...in fact it has me on a quest. A real toughie. The key would be the original analogy (boy/country). Without that, a search seems to be fruitless. It could be very ancient, go back to the Romans or classical Greeks. But something keeps hearkening me to a Biblical connotation...perhaps something like "you can take the sinner out of the sin, but you can't take the sin out of the sinner...you can only forgive." It could also relate to the concept of "original" sin. Anyone here enough of a Biblical scholar to perhaps zero in on this 'shot in the dark'?
I've used this saying regularly, in scores of subject combinations and usually in jest, over the years. I'm really curious. On the other hand, it could be modern...20th century Madison Avenue, an ad slogan we've forgotten. Who knows? Help!
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addict
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addict
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On the other hand, it could be modern...20th century Madison Avenue, an ad slogan we've forgotten. Who knows? Help!
Sorry, since this was posted I have had this dumb jingle going through my mind, over and over and over again! It is screaming to come out and if I don't release it it may haunt me forever!You can take Salem out of the country, but, you can't take the country out of Salem.There.....NOW LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY! PHEW!
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Carpal Tunnel
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This is the only clue I could turn up after exhaustive searching, Keiva. From a site called "Sayings and Everyday Expressions" (but nothing more there, what you see here is what you get).
BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE THE COUNTRY OUT OF THE BOY---Changing the place a person lives
does not change one's character or personality.---B. Baer (1938.) Hollywood. ...
I searched extensively on the B. Baer lead, but found zilch.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sounds like Buddy Baer (q.v. http://us.imdb.com/Name?Baer,+Buddy) You could dig through his movies and look for quotes there.
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