I'm pretty sure I had a great-aunt named Ima Daisy Bottom. I'm not absolutely positive that that first name is correct.

How Violence Increases Our Vocabulary

basket case: Today, a basket case is simply a neurotic person, but during WWII, it meant a living soldier who had lost all his limbs and was brought home in a basket. The United States military denies that real baskets were ever used to carry soldiers. Regardless, the original meaning of the word is still gruesome.

gung ho: You may be gung ho about collecting stamps, playing solitaire, or other individual pursuits, but originally the term was more applicable to teams. The U.S. Marines first used it a as a slogan during World War II, after general Evans Carlson adapted the Chinese kung ho, which means “work in harmony”. While the teamwork element of the definition has faded, the enthusiasm bit has certainly remained.

I knew that one. eta: It was Chinese Communist rebels who used the term.

Some new terms:

fobbit, hillbilly armor, and IED: The war in Iraq is contributing its own expressions. A popular word on the rise is fobbit, a term that combines FOB (forward operating base) with hobbit. The word is a derogatory term for soldiers who stay too close to base and help themselves to three square meals a day. Another expression gaining steam is hillbilly armor, a term for scraps used to bulletproof vehicles.

That's interesting. I was recently wondering where the term "gung ho" came from.

My great-aunt was Marguerite and was known as Daisy her entire life.

I just think that's adorable. My grandmother goes by Margot. As it turns out, Margot was a family name, but her mother decided to get "fancy." This is a story that will sound familiar to anyone who knows that my parents agreed to name me Jesse, and then at the last minute, my mother put Jessica on the birth certificate. It's a family trait!

I was recently wondering where the term "gung ho" came from.

Communism!

a-hem.

Carlson was interesting. Some said he was a Communist. Marines said of him, "He may be red, but he sure ain't yellow!"

He met Edgar Snow in China and read Snow's Red Star Over China. This encounter led him to visit the Chinese communist troop headquarters in northern China, where he met Chinese Communist leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. Traveling thousands of miles through the interior of China with the communist guerrillas, often on foot and horseback over the most hazardous terrain, he lived under the same primitive conditions. He was impressed by the tactics used by Chinese Communist guerrillas to fight Japanese troops.

...

A year later, in 1942, he was placed in command of the Second Marine Raider Battalion with the rank of lieutenant colonel, a new combat organization whose creation he influenced. The organization and discipline of the 2nd Raiders was modeled on that of the Communist Route Armies he had observed during his time in China. Because of his relationship with President Roosevelt and the president's son, Captain James Roosevelt, a Marine reserve captain who authored a letter to the Commandant of the Marine Corps proposing creation the Raiders, the Marine Corps authorized the creation of the Raiders despite misgivings about Carlson's philosophy.[1][2]

In the military there is a sharp caste-system divide between officers and enlisted personnel, and even experienced noncommissioned officers were expected to be subservient to even the newest, greenest second lieutenant. Carlson's experience in having gone back and forth between officer and enlisted status in both the Army and the Marine Corps convinced him that this was not in the best interests of the service. Carlson saw the Communist approach as superior. Leaders were expected to serve the unit and the fighters they led, not to be served. Responsibility, not privilege, would be the keyword for battalion leadership when the Second Raiders formed up. Using an egalitarian and team-building approach, Carlson promulgated a new way for senior NCOs to mentor junior officers and work with the officers for the betterment of the unit. Even more controversial in concept, Carlson gave his men "ethical indoctrination," designed to "give (his men) conviction through persuasion," describing for each man what he was fighting for and why.

Evans Carlson

Sheesh, Corwoord. The house is in Texas. ANY house in Texas migth reasonably, at some future point, be infested with termites, amirite? What does she want, a house made of cement blocks?

My g-grandmother Daisy May's child, Jesse, was my grandfather. But he hated his name. He thought it was a girl's name.

I like it for boy or girl!

so sorry Corwood. We hates them. A pox on their current dwelling!

Wait- Jesse is really Jessica!?! My mind is blown!

I like it for boy or girl!

Yeah, my parents were having so much trouble coming up with names they could agree on that they decided to just pick one that would work either way.