[at-l] FUBAR (was rat's ass society)

[David Hicks" <daveh@usit.net (David Hicks)]

It may be what is "proper," but it ain't what it was originally.

So, there were lots of (and may still be) "proper" little old ladies (and a
few gentlemen) out there who were being heard to be saying something which
they would have never said, had they had any idea what would have been
heard, by a great number of the less genteel folk.

Therein lies the rub for having a "proper" version.

Communication is hard enough w/o adding such confusion.

Chainsaw




----- Original Message -----
From: "Leslie Booher" <lwbooher@halifax.com>
To: "Hal Wright" <knowhal@netreach.net>; "AT-L list"
<AT-L@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 11:26 PM
Subject: Re: [at-l] FUBAR (was rat's ass society)


> The proper F word for SNAFU and FUBAR is "fouled", as in Situation Normal,
> All Fouled Up, and Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.  anklebear
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hal Wright <knowhal@netreach.net>
> To: AT-L list <AT-L@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Date: Sunday, April 01, 2001 6:50 PM
> Subject: [at-l] FUBAR (was rat's ass society)
>
>
> >I never was in the military but on my first job in aerospace I worked
with
> >people who were career military, and I can tell you for sure that SNAFU
and
> >its cousin FUBAR are military expressions. SNAFU being "situation normal
> all
> >*** up" and FUBAR being "*** up beyond all recognition."
> >
> >There were others too such as FIGMO which meant "*** it, got my orders."
> >This was used in industry in reference to someone who had quit on two
weeks
> >notice or was about to be transferred, etc, as in "He doesn't care, he's
> >FIGMO."
> >
> >Being peopled by ex-military types, the aerospace industry was a
> >quasi-military environment twenty years ago when I first started on the
> job.
> >SNAFU was one of the tamer things you would hear during the course of a
> day.
> >I doubt it's like that anymore, although when I went back and worked for
a
> >few weeks there a couple of years ago pretty much everyone male and
female
> >still cursed like a sailor, as the saying goes.
> >
> >People throw the terms SNAFU and FUBAR around in polite company, I think
> >because they have forgotten or never knew the real meanings of the words.
> My
> >boss (at school, I'm a teacher now) used the term SNAFU recently in an
> >official memo, which does indeed accurately describe the environment at
> >school sometimes but I doubt it's what he intended to say.  :)
> >
> >-- Hal / Pokey (not trail-related but not mean-spirited either)
> >
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