By David Wessel
Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R, Wyo.) dredged up the term “green weenie” in a CNN interview the other day on the budget deficit: “So I’m waiting for the politician to get up and say: ‘There’s only one way to do this, you dig in to the Big Four: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense.” And anybody giving you anything different than that, you want to walk out the door, stick your finger down your throat, and give ‘em the Green Weenie.”
- Bloomberg News
- Former Sen. Alan Simpson’s reference to a “green weenie” sent reporters scrambling.
That sent reporters and bloggers scurrying for definitions. The Green Weenie was, to be sure, a green plastic hot dog that Pittsburgh Pirates fans waved to jinx opponents and bring luck to their baseball team in the 1960s. (See an example here.)
But that’s not the only use. Some definitions are sexual. (Use your imagination.) Some say it refers to a virulent sexually transmitted disease. It’s also the name of a trout fly used for fishing that mimics an inchworm. Like so many phrase or acronyms (AWOL, snafu, above my pay grade) it also seems to have originated in or at least been widely used in the military. For the panoply of ways in which the phrase has been used and speculation on its origins, see the Language Log tended by scholars from the Linguistic Data Consortium hosted the University of Pennsylvania and — don’t tell Sen. Simpson — funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.
We caught up with Mr. Simpson the other day and asked him what he meant. When he was in the Army, he says, if you were mistreated or given some lousy task, you were said to have been given “the green weenie.” And if it was really bad, then it was “the green weenie with oak leaf clusters.”
It was a military term with no sexual connotation and was known b y all in the military as such.
Dean Bidney is correct regarding the Army Commendation Medal (ArComm), however, they could also be awarded with the “V” device (for valor).
I’m sure that the term has been used in various ways to mean sundry objects over the years. It’s a minor thing, anyway, since Obama ignored his highly-vaunted commission (it was just eyewash, anyway).
Much of which former Senator Simpson says these days makes little sense.
When are the dumbest of us going to stop vilifying (aka blaming) Obama, Bush, or deifying Reagan/Kennedy among others, and realize that every bit of our government is bought and paid for by lawyers and lobbyists, and our taxes only mop up what’s left? I am not a radical, religous conservative, Tea Party advocate, or a Commie. I’m a hard-working, well-educated average common citizen. I almost said “common consumer,” bt I’m decidedly less than that.
To my simple mind, until you stop blaming along party lines, and start identifying where the failures lie, you “aint got a thing if you aint got that swing.” Some of you will get the joke.
A modified Cleveland Steamer?