[Verginius Rufus]

The version I heard as a child was "catch a monkey..."

Obviously that's a reference to the French...there just wasn't space in the line to include "cheese eating surrender."

[wonders]

VR: The version we used when I was a child (and I'm a "little bitty white woman" from the South who was taught to NEVER use the N-word) was "catch a tiger" -- a monkey sounds like more fun and lots lets dangerous. We usually used "one potato, two potato" rather than "eeny-meeny", though. We did switch around the "out you old dirty dish rag you" elimination bit between the two, however.

But down to roots, "tiger" is not so far off from the N-word, when you think about it (switch the T to N and add another G). And Eastern Europeans (and some Asians) commonly refer to African humans as "monkeys".

CobaltBlue: Thanks for the info. I'm interested in that stuff. Hope you keep it coming.

All: This lawsuit is sooo ridiculous!