When we were kids my dad, a Korean War NCO, would say (yell) "I only
want to
see assholes and elbows - now get going!" when we were "encouraged" to
do our
household chores such as cleaning the basement, scrubbing the garage
floor and
so on. So I believe it is an old Army phase, used to motivate the troops
to do
barracks cleaning, KP and such. I would say that it could apply to the
performance of any mindless task with enforced diligence. Cheers, Andy
Blackley
Latter-day usage that I've heard applies this expression to
describe crowd conditions, as in a line from a song called "Thunder and
Darkness" (I believe) by a singer named Tom Rush (I think - it's only
been twenty years or so since I heard it.) - "Downtown Chicago - Asshole
to elbow"
Dan Pockrus
Systems Integration Engineer
Efficient Networks, Inc.
dpockrus@efficient.com
http://www.efficient.com
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