Saturday, December 20, 2014

you'll shoot your eye out, kid

One of the most memorable lines from A Christmas Story , repeated numerous times to Ralphie, the kid who only wants a Daisy Air Rifle BB Gun for Christmas.

Amateur etymologist that I am, this is another one of those phrases I wonder about. Where did it come from? How did it become so commonly used by parents of a certain era? And more to the point, what is its modern parental equivalent in these days of video games where kids are probably shooting out lots of other peoples' eyes online? Or maybe they're in the park pointing a  real-looking toy pistol at passersby. Whaddaya say to them?

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