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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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> "A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month"
Wow - so I could expand my potential for physical abuse twelvefold... usually I have to wait until someone's birthday, and it's "A pinch to grow an inch and a sock to grow a block."
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Joined: Apr 2002
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member
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member
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Typically, this is for kids - particularly siblings, in our case anyway... it can only be said before midday. Basically whoever remembers it's the first day of the new month first races up to someone and punches them on the arm, saying "pinch and a punch for the first day of the month." the other kid - if they can catch the first, who typically runs away (if they know what's good for them!) as fast as they can, can say things like "a hit and a kick for being so quick," "pinch and a pull for being so cruel," and maybe others - help me out here if you know others! - all accompanied by the appropriate gestures. I have no idea how or where this originated; I can't believe it's exclusively Aussie!
alexis
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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there was some ritual for your birthday, with getting punched in your upper arm.. girls always did it gently, boys, always did it hard.. even to girls.. until the teen years, when they caught on, it wasn't the best way to win a woman heart. there was some chant that went with it.. but i don't remember it all..
nothing for the first of the month..
but when my kids were young, there was a similar game for VW beetles.. the first person to see a VW beetle called it-- and got to punch some one..
called it-- that what we said, that what we did--
going out, the the first person to call shotgun had dibs on the front seat, because they called it.. conflict over TV, or where to eat out? some one would have called it-- pizza hut, or TGIF, or Sizzler.. and dibs-- i have first dibs on whatever-- the bathroom after a long trip, anything of kid value!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Back to rabbits and months, when I was a child (60s, Georgia, USA) we had a pretty broad approach to the issue. For good luck, you were supposed to say "rabbit rabbit" on the first day of the month. Every month. Re Bridget's caveat, we didn't have too many late nights as kids so it worked pretty well most of the time  .
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
the first person to see a VW beetle called it-- and got to punch some one..
I know this game as Punch Buggy. The kid who spotted the Beetle yelled "Punch Buggy Red!" (or whatever color it was) and punched the kid next to him/her.
A similar game is Beaver Whacker*, which involves vehicles with that fake wood-paneling. Whoever saw one would try to be the first to yell "Beaver Whacker!" and slap the kid next to him/her.
*Yeah, I know. Shut up back there, wouldja?
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Carpal Tunnel
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mmm, in Kent we used "a pinch and a punch - first day of the month!" to which the traditional witty repartee was "a punch and a kick, for being so quick!"
My lucky dip seemed unremarkable: 'evening'
yeahbut!®
evening
(say 'eevning)
noun the period of the day after midday. [Middle English; Old English aefnung, from aefnian draw towards evening]
~ are they saying the term evening is applied to the period normally referred to as afternoon - truly?
I blame it on their sad downupside lifestyle - that and too much sun ;)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A similar game is Beaver Whacker*,
Ohmigawd, ohmigawd! I have both hands clapped over my mouth (or did, before typing). I do not beLIEVE this! This *couldn't have been the real name! (Could it??)
Wofa, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you...?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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btw, in case not everyone noticed, there is a feature of this site advertised thusly:
Welcome to the Word Map forums page. Four Word Map forums will be held throughout the year. The dates will be announced soon. Each forum will be held in real-time with special guests. We hope you can join us. If you join our Mailing List <http://www.abc.net.au/wordmap/mailing_list.htm> we will notify you by email with the dates of the forums.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Someone with an OED might be able to confirm my feeling that evening used to be the period after dinner, and as dinners got later and later in fashionable society evening came to mean what we would now call evening, and afternoon had to be coined to fill in the gap in the day.
Bingley
Bingley
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