whole sick crew

[David Simpson]

Samuel Moyer wrote:

> This is an interesting point... I thought the name strange when I first read
> it and soon let it go.  It certainly does not seem to mean "the entire sick
> crew," and may just refer to well-being.  In which case there certainly is
> an oxymoron which strikes me as being very funny when I think about it and
> ironic when I think about some of the members of the crew.  Other thoughts?
>
> sam
>
> > Has anyone besides me been laboring under the misapprehension that the
> > 'whole' in the phrase refers to entire? As in, the whole shmir, or whole
> > hog, or whole lot of ?  Suddenly the word seems to make more sense as
> > the wholeness of health and well-being. In other words the 'whole sick
> > crew' might be thought of as an outright contradiction or oxymoron.
> > Except of course it's a contraction that a few writers of the last
> > couple centuries have insisted must be factored into our social
> > existence. One such writer much in the news at the time V. was being
> > written. would have been R. D. Laing. Laing was dealing with insanity
> > not soical alienation as such. But there was much crossover in his
> > thinking. Never quite said insanity is health. Wish I could find my copy
> > of The Divided Self so I could quote something. Anyway I feel I must
> > personally go through some minor reevalutation of my V.
> >
> >                     P.
>

Wha? Not sure what you're suggesting. But "Whole," as in "Whole Sick Crew," surely
does mean "entire" or "complete" (as in "whole ball of wax," "whole darn thing,"
etc.) WSC was a popular expression for assorted collections of rogues, scamps, and
renegades throughout the 50's and early 60's. Am not sure of it's origin (would
guess that it's naval), but the usage certainly enjoyed a long and popular
existence prior to _V_ and outside fiction.

--
"For every journey there's a point beyond which it makes no sense to turn back.
That point is your destination." -- Kafka.
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homepage: http://www.depaul.edu/~dsimpson