I have never heard the phrase "Tighten up, Apple!", but I suspect Sorcha is on the right track. "Get bent!" was a favourite insult at my school, and I think it had to to with anal sex too, but I'm not absolutely sure. It was merely a casual insult, though, not the precursor to a fight.

There was a subculture of stupid or rough guys at my school who got into a lot of fights...usually after school at some prearranged location. I'd say they comprised about 10% of the male students, and they were mostly either rough farm kids with dysfunctional families...or rough town kids with dysfunctional families. God knows what became of them, but their prospects did not look good. When a guy was known as a fighter, he felt obliged to keep up his reputation by getting into (and winning) more fights. It was a primitive honour system of sorts.

Sort of like extracurricular courses for idiots...

I figure more than a few of these guys ended up in the armed forces, or jail, or both.

- LH