Author Topic: Simple Question (Read 257 times)

hawker238 · « **on:** June 22, 2004, 07:48:30 PM »

Where did the saying "screwed the pooch" come from?

Martlet · « **Reply #1 on:** June 22, 2004, 08:12:27 PM »

Canada

Ripper29 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 22, 2004, 08:24:51 PM »

Close but not quite...

"Screwed the pooch," meaning "made a terrible mistake," is a
cleaned-up paraphrase that author Tom Wolfe popularized. Wolfe's book
"The Right Stuff," which dealt with the early years of America's
manned space program, used the phrase "screwed the pooch" in
describing a calamitous error made by Mercury Astronaut Gus Grissom:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=350436:)

Ozark · « **Reply #3 on:** June 22, 2004, 08:27:17 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Ripper29
Close but not quite...

"Screwed the pooch," meaning "made a terrible mistake," is a
cleaned-up paraphrase that author Tom Wolfe popularized. Wolfe's book
"The Right Stuff," which dealt with the early years of America's
manned space program, used the phrase "screwed the pooch" in
describing a calamitous error made by Mercury Astronaut Gus Grissom:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=350436:)

Cool!

TY Ripper

Ozark · « **Reply #4 on:** June 22, 2004, 08:30:40 PM »

Still have a hard time believing it.

I’m just a simple hillbilly, please show me again.

midnight Target · « **Reply #5 on:** June 22, 2004, 11:02:00 PM »

Sorry, but "screwed the pooch" certainly pre-dates "The Right Stuff".

Hyrax81st · « **Reply #6 on:** June 22, 2004, 11:08:47 PM »

"Screwed the pooch" is the sanitized version (for print and movies) of what they really said... which was

"F _ _ _ ed the dog"...

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=350436

Originally meant military men goofing off on the job, rather than to catastrophic errors:

Anyone who has ever been in the military has spent an inordinate
amount of time in a 'stand-by' formation waiting for someone to get the orders to start some activity. Many man-hours were spent in an activity that was commonly known as 'Effing the dog.' [Note: They didn't really say, 'Effing,' but I'm sure you can figure it out.] Back home in civilian life this was cleaned up to the slightly more acceptable 'screwing the pooch."

Nash · « **Reply #7 on:** June 22, 2004, 11:11:57 PM »

I thought "****ing the dog" means slackin' off.

Octavius · « **Reply #8 on:** June 22, 2004, 11:31:25 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nash
I thought "****ing the dog" means slackin' off.

No, thats just what Funked considers a "damn fun time."