Talk:Banana messenger

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I rode a train in 1961 from the midwest to Utah and noticed the restrictions that certain tickets - clergy, etc etc - banana messenger were not valid on the train. I have no financial or other interest in any company selling youth clothing or supplies. I just think it is neat to track how usages change. In the last few decades I have seen kids wearing sweatshirts or T-shirts saying "loose lips sink ships" - a WW II slogan against gossiping about troop movements - enemy spies could in principle gain an advantage. No one wearing such a shirt and with whom I struck up a conversation had any idea of the provenance of the slogan. See [1]. I think it's nice to make names and slogans traceable, that's all. Suggest you let it be. Carrionluggage 05:09, 8 March 2007 (UTC) Unidentified user claims that the exact name identity is "happenstance". The chance is minuscule. A lot of old names are re-used with the original use forgotten, and it is historically valuable to maintain the links. In the 19th century, for example a "thank you ma'am" was a dip in the road on the ascending side of a hill, used to give a tired or overheated horse a chance to rest, because the wagon would not roll back. At some date, a joking usage developed related to sex with premature ejaculation. I can't now find the original definition in use, but my father explained it to me about 1944, long before the sexual usage arose.

Similarly, one sees t-shirts with the words "Loose Lips Sink Ships" all over - I have seen them in France too - but the original WWII meaning is largely forgotten. Carrionluggage 05:14, 23 April 2007 (UTC)