Comments on: Foo Fighters and UFOs http://www.dailywritingtips.com/foo-fighters-and-ufos/ Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:11:50 -0500 hourly 1 By: Janice http://www.dailywritingtips.com/foo-fighters-and-ufos/comment-page-1/#comment-188288 Janice Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:16:39 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=3272#comment-188288 How cool! I thought Foo Fighters was just a name Dave Grohl made up for his band. How cool! I thought Foo Fighters was just a name Dave Grohl made up for his band.

]]> By: Stephen Thorn http://www.dailywritingtips.com/foo-fighters-and-ufos/comment-page-1/#comment-187719 Stephen Thorn Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:36:52 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=3272#comment-187719 Although it's just opinion on my part, I suspect "foo" sprang from the Allies fighting the Axis in WWII. In wartime it is common for one side to craft insulting and debasing comments about "the enemy" as a means of maintaining morale both among the troops and those on the home front. Examples are legion and it isn't necessary to go into them here, but I will mention one: "foo" as a comical connection to oriental persons also springs up in a WWII-era Warner Bros. Daffy Duck cartoon. In that 'toon, Daffy is assisting an older duck -- ostensibly a physician/surgeon -- in an operation held in an old-style operating theatre. The surgeon cautions that he needs complete silence, so Daffy holds up a large sign reading "Hush yo' mouf" to show the audience; he then flips the sign to show the back, which is lettered in oriental (don't know if it's Chinese, Japanese, or whatever) and thus incomprehensible to the audience. Daffy shakes the sign and the characters rearrange into letters spelling "Silence is foo." This was obviously played for a gag, and I'd opine that part of the humor was the subtext that the Japanese (ie "the enemy") would use the word "foo." To get back to the point -- American flyers were, understandably, afraid of Japanese and German fighter pilots. A strange light in the sky, one you couldn't identify or positively determine was friend or foe, was a scary thing. One way to deal with the anxiety caused by such lights was to label them in a derogatory way, and so Japanese planes attained the epithet "meatballs" (referring to the emblem of the Japanese rising sun on the craft's fusilage) or something similar -- it made the threat seem less threatening, and so easier to deal with. The speeding, bright, unclassifiable lights pilots reported probably came to be known as "foo fighters" for that reason. Although it’s just opinion on my part, I suspect “foo” sprang from the Allies fighting the Axis in WWII. In wartime it is common for one side to craft insulting and debasing comments about “the enemy” as a means of maintaining morale both among the troops and those on the home front. Examples are legion and it isn’t necessary to go into them here, but I will mention one: “foo” as a comical connection to oriental persons also springs up in a WWII-era Warner Bros. Daffy Duck cartoon. In that ‘toon, Daffy is assisting an older duck — ostensibly a physician/surgeon — in an operation held in an old-style operating theatre. The surgeon cautions that he needs complete silence, so Daffy holds up a large sign reading “Hush yo’ mouf” to show the audience; he then flips the sign to show the back, which is lettered in oriental (don’t know if it’s Chinese, Japanese, or whatever) and thus incomprehensible to the audience. Daffy shakes the sign and the characters rearrange into letters spelling “Silence is foo.” This was obviously played for a gag, and I’d opine that part of the humor was the subtext that the Japanese (ie “the enemy”) would use the word “foo.”

To get back to the point — American flyers were, understandably, afraid of Japanese and German fighter pilots. A strange light in the sky, one you couldn’t identify or positively determine was friend or foe, was a scary thing. One way to deal with the anxiety caused by such lights was to label them in a derogatory way, and so Japanese planes attained the epithet “meatballs” (referring to the emblem of the Japanese rising sun on the craft’s fusilage) or something similar — it made the threat seem less threatening, and so easier to deal with. The speeding, bright, unclassifiable lights pilots reported probably came to be known as “foo fighters” for that reason.

]]> By: SAM http://www.dailywritingtips.com/foo-fighters-and-ufos/comment-page-1/#comment-187633 SAM Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:17:18 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=3272#comment-187633 I'm a little late to the game, to be sure, with this comment. I've been receiving the daily e-mail for several months. Recently, you've been stacking entries in the daily e-mail, some worth printing, others not. I don't have the Web site-savvy to know what's entailed, but I do wish you could add a printer-friendly version to the entries posted on the Web site. That would help in gaining access to items in the archives as well. I realize that maybe a point to the Internet is avoidance of paper, but if the material is worthwhile, it's often worth printing off. I’m a little late to the game, to be sure, with this comment.

I’ve been receiving the daily e-mail for several months. Recently, you’ve been stacking entries in the daily e-mail, some worth printing, others not.

I don’t have the Web site-savvy to know what’s entailed, but I do wish you could add a printer-friendly version to the entries posted on the Web site. That would help in gaining access to items in the archives as well.

I realize that maybe a point to the Internet is avoidance of paper, but if the material is worthwhile, it’s often worth printing off.

]]> By: Julie http://www.dailywritingtips.com/foo-fighters-and-ufos/comment-page-1/#comment-187514 Julie Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:54:30 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=3272#comment-187514 How could you not mention the band?! How could you not mention the band?!

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