BS: The True Double Whammy

Subject: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 16 May 03 - 12:12 PM

The phrase Double Whammy appears in a current thread. The true / original meaning of this is dark.
As I recall from a TV programme on black American culture, the Whammy is the Evil Eye. You employ it [if you have the 'gift] by widening the eye with index and middle fingers as you stare at the person to be 'whammied' - my word! The Double Whammy employs both hands and eyes, and must only be used if you seek to kill.
So please refrain.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: MMario
Date: 16 May 03 - 12:17 PM

nope - the origin of this is known -

Al Capp took whammy and used it in his comic strip Lil'
    Abner, first in July of 1951:

          Evil-Eye Fleegle is th' name, an' th' "whammy" is
          my game. Mudder Nature endowed me wit' eyes which
          can putrefy citizens t' th' spot!...There is th' "single
          whammy." That, friend, is th' full, pure power o' one o'
          my evil eyes! It's dynamite, friend, an' I do not t'row
          it around lightly!...And lastly - th' "double
          whammy" - namely, th' full power o' both eyes -
          which I hopes I never hafta use.

"wham" was a blow, strike,

Al's use of whammy and double whammy are the first recorded.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 16 May 03 - 12:38 PM

The Oxford English Dictionary agrees with MMario and gives the same example.
Some idiots now consider Al Capp's creations to be politically incorrect.

Whammy was used earlier (example from 1940), but it referred to keeping quiet while a pitcher was working on a no-hit ball game, so as not to put the whammy on him.

Beware of online, TV documentary and gee-whiz word books and their explanations of terms. The definitions often are the product of vivid imaginations. I was approached to edit one of those books long ago. The publishing house editor concerned with non-fiction told me that he didn't care if the explanations were correct or not, just so long as they were interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 May 03 - 12:57 PM

Just because a word or phrase can be assigned a "first recorded" appearance in print doesn't mean it wasn't already in use orally.

Even Guest Q, while agreeing this the premise that Al Capp gets credit for first-use of "double whammy," allows that the word "whammy" had already been in use within the context of baseball, meaning (as I understand it) a "jinx" or "curse."

Who's to say Mr. Capp wasn't using a phrase he'd picked up somewhere, perhaps even a phrase already in fairly wide use among one or more of American society's less visible subcultures (black folks, po-white hillbillies, reeferheads, jazz musicians, etc., etc.) Until the fairly recent spread of electronic communications, the unique jargon or slang of each of these groups would, almost by definition, *never* be published in books or mainstream periodicals.

The "single" whammy, if not the double one, is apparently known to have a longstanding unpublished history, so who knows?

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: Mark Clark
Date: 16 May 03 - 01:30 PM

I well remember Evil-Eye Fleegle—in his zoot suit—and the rest of Capp's wonderful characters. It was one reason I always looked forward to Sunday mornings as a child. Capp was a prime example of someone who keeps working longer than is warranted, long after all his best ideas have been expressed. In later years he became cought up in hateful right-wing politics and started bringing that into the strip. It finally ended long after it should have to the relief of nearly everyone.

Still, his characters and stories were great fun and everyone had a secret crush on Moonbeam McSwine.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 16 May 03 - 03:12 PM

The citations in the OED trace the printed history of words and their meanings. I agree that these are just the authenticated usages, and they may be extended as more information is collected. The 1987 supplement added many earlier and later appearances of many words, and many more were added in the latest edition. Until new authenticated information is found, however, the rest remains speculation. The OED is the benchmark.

New information was found in this case, see the current thread on the English slang word 'jankers'. Thread 59694: jankers . The latest edition I have puts the word back to about the First World War, but seemingly it was already being used in the early 19th century. This example may have been added to the latest edition.

Anyone may submit new information, with the support data and reference, to the OED.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 May 03 - 04:39 PM

As I recall, the one person who could neutralize Evil-Eye Fleegle's double whammy was Mammy Yokum. I don't remember what it was called, but she had the equivalent eyeball power, but for Good rather than Evil. Whenever the two of them squared off, it was like a Star Trek phaser battle between starships.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 May 03 - 04:48 PM

Hey Q....I could give a shit about his PCness. PC sucks. I said when referring to him that I thought then and still think today that the guy was an asshole....possibly a genius, but to me an asshole. I just thought the whole strip was a simple ass piece of crap but like others I read it weekly. Everybody has an opinion and as the saying goes..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 16 May 03 - 06:01 PM

Who would have thought you could combine Tele-evangelists, bass fishing shows and a deranged ex-governor into one plot. Oh, right --- this is Hiaasen. Anything goes.

   The book, Double Whammy, a good read.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 17 May 03 - 09:38 AM

I don't get it.
According to message 2 the whammy it was an evil eye concept, which Al Capp 'took' and used. True a wham is a hit or strike. The baseball example suggests a 'bad luck' connotation.
No'vivid imagination' relevant, by the way.
In the TV programme I saw, it was a first hand narrative by the claimed user of the evil eye. A white American, he said he was a professional who was employed by boxers to be in their corner and put the whammy on their opposition. He explained that he would only use the single whammy, of course, except he then said, "And this is how I beat the Japs in World War two", and demonstrated the double whammy. He had learned how to do it from a black friend.
So this evidence for the term is claimed to go back to 1945 at least.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 03 - 11:34 AM

and everything they say on tv is true....

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 17 May 03 - 11:59 AM

Never believe first-hand narratives if they lack substantiation.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 19 May 03 - 04:44 AM

Never believe what you read in print. This is in print. Do not believe it. Therefore believe what you read in print.
Or, to put it another way, all assertions are only that. All precepts tell you more about the teller than the subject.
Or, to put it another way - stop telling me what to believe or not believe. Especially please do not sneer at me for adducing someone else's evidence. {I suddenly doubted if I was using the word adducing correctly, so I looked it up in a very large dictionary. They agree with me. Am I now more correct in my usage? Or just in agreement with the dictionary?]
I have a mind of my own. And I have a name. Nearly everything else is a matter of opinion. If I report what someone else says, that does not mean I accept it.
But I began by questioning the currect meaning of Double Whammy, and was foolish enough to refer to the 'true meaning'. I should of course have said 'older meaning' or some such. A thousand curses upon language, which was I suppose created to convey meaning and thought as well as emotion, but does a most poor job.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: open mike
Date: 20 May 03 - 03:24 AM

I heard that term a lot of times last year when my parents both died within a week of each other. I can't count how many people described
this as a double whammy.

Subject: RE: BS: The True Double Whammy
From: Kim C
Date: 20 May 03 - 01:33 PM

Or as Scully once said to Mulder, "Please explain the scientific implications of the whammy."

Whammy - how I love ya how I love ya.............