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Terms Which Have Disappeared

Inkstainedwretch

One Too Many
Messages
1,037
Location
United States
Does anyone still say, "Tell it to the Marines?" I never could figure that one out. What do the Marines have to do with anything? Yet at one time it was a common way to dismiss an unlikely story or excuse.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,773
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
"Tell it to Sweeney" is the variation we had. In all senses the idea was that you should go take your ridiculous comments and tell them to someone who'll believe them. The "Marines" version, so I understand, comes from the 19th Century idea that Marines were gullible and not particulary bright -- a notion perpetrated by members of the Navy.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Does anyone still say, "Tell it to the Marines?" I never could figure that one out. What do the Marines have to do with anything?

I once accompanied a diplomat for lunch at a US Navy mess in Naples, Italy-three Chief Petty Officers and a hundred enlisted Marines, the diplomat, and me, a teenage US Army sergeant.
Our US Air Force C-130 had to refuel and catch a few colonels enroute to Frankfurt and a fast chow was suggested by the air crew. The Marines acted appropriately but were a curious bunch;
giving the impression that I had entered some holy-of-holies mess hall without permission. I just smiled.:D
 
Messages
12,985
Location
Germany
How about "knee-walking drunk"?

Marksmen's festival. ;););)

schuetzenfest.jpg
 

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