Survivor 14

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Jughead P. Jones

What the heck was Lisi on during that final tribal council? And, more importantly, where can I get some of what she had?

I think the better question is what should she have been on. I normally bristle at people like me making medical/psychological diagnosis with zero qualification and only a TV appearance as evidence, but it's hard to imagine any clearer evidence of some serious imbalance than the "I'm quitting/I'm trying/I'm quitting/you're losers/etc." she went through.

[Mousey Girl]

I have heard the Eenie Meenie thing before. I just didn't put it with Lisi's little speech thingy. It would make sense, though. I keep picturing her actions with the whole coffee incident with Stacie. She made it obvious she never liked Dreamz or Cassandra, that they were beneath her and not worthy of her assitance, just her ridicule.

[Alex]

I'd say the ****** version is reasonably well known though, of course, not universally so. Especially among younger people. Non-****** versions of the rhyme long pre-date, but it was the dominant form of the poem in American for quite a while.

It was one of three pop-cultural uses of the word "******" I grew up with (though only used when very young before I even knew what the word meant. My mom straightened me out pretty quickly (because of IHOP, actually).

****** knocking (knocking on a door and running away)
****** toes (Brazil nuts)
"catch a ****** by his toe"


But it is one of those things that every once in a while gets someone in trouble for using it without being aware of how it is perceived by many American blacks. A few years ago a flight attendant used the rhyme (a clean version) and black passengers sued because they felt humiliated (I believe they lost).

I have no idea what Lisi intended, but for PR purposes with an all black final three it was at best an unfortunate choice.

[Stan4dSteph]

I've never heard the eeny meeny with "catch a ****** by his toe." Is it a regional thing? I grew up in Upstate NY.

[mousepod]

I've heard most of those - I grew up in New Jersey.

It's interesting how nursery rhymes and the like get modified to fit current standards of acceptability. In 1939, Agatha Christie's novel "Ten Little N*****s" was published. By the time I was a kid, it was "Ten Little Indians". I wonder if even that title would be considered acceptable by today's standards.

[Alex]

Reading around, the unclean version (I'm at work now so just typing that work stops) was in Pulp Fiction though I don't specifically remember it.

[Prudence]

Originally Posted by mousepod

By the time I was a kid, it was "Ten Little Indians". I wonder if even that title would be considered acceptable by today's standards.

I believe it's generally now called "And Then There Were None." (We read this in my fifth grade class. Or maybe it was sixth grade. Same teacher.)

[mousepod]

If I remember correctly, the Pulp Fiction usage was in the scene in the back of the pawn shop.

[Alex]

Yeah, I remember the scene (deciding which one to rape first) I just don't remember the specifics of the rhyme.

And according to Wikipedia, Tarantino must have a fondness for it because it also appears in Natural Born Killers, which he was involved with writing.