Doh! Doh! (was Re: Yo-yos)

[davemarc]

> From: Mike Brehm <mbrehm at fpl.lib.az.us>
> 
> this is from "A History of Toys" by Antonia
> Fraser (1972, Hamlyn Publishing Group, Ltd., pg. 15):
> 
>         ...Sometimes a toy will vanish for a couple of centuries,
>         apparently forever, only to reappear in a completely different
>         part of the world for no obvious reason.
>            The yo-yo is an excellent example of this phenomenon. The
>         yo-yo was known in the Far East in the most ancient times, and
>         in the Phillipines was actually used as a weapon, its user
>         hiding in a tree, and striking his vistim lethally on the head.

As a scholar of Tagalog in its most primitive forms, I note that the
earliest use of the word "Doh!" arose shortly after the yo-yo was put into
use.  Filipinos during this period usually traveled in pairs; accordingly,
the attacks from above would occur in pairs, too.  Hence the redundancy of
"yo-yo" and the typical response:  "Doh!  Doh!"

Out in the boondocks,

davemarc