# Origin: "Catch-22"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-catch-22/73592>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 24, 2001, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-catch-22/73592 "2001-07-24T04:53:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-catch-22/73592/21 "2001-07-25T05:17:43Z")

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It’s been many years since I last read _Catch-22_, but . . .

I distinctly recall that towards the end of the book, someone in authority tells Yossarian the **real** meaning of Catch-22: “We can do anything you can’t stop us from doing.”

Does anyone else recall this, or has a quarter century of dealing with computers (starting with EAMs that you “programmed” by wiring a punchboard) finally taken its ultimate toll?

_“It’s the brain drain–his brain is draining.”_

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**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-catch-22/73592/22 "2001-07-25T15:36:01Z")

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Well, in the book, Scheisskopf is a totally incompetent training commander who then shows up in the field to rain still more chaos on Yossarian.

Scheisskopf is German for “Shithead.”

Adolf Tokaz is a real-life training commander who then shows up in the field to command the 340th. His competence is not known to me.

But someone before me must have noticed the similarity between “Tokaz” and “tuchus”, the Yiddish word for “ass.”

I just thought it seemed pretty familiar.

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**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-catch-22/73592/23 "2001-07-25T15:39:40Z")

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Hebrew, dammit. Not Yiddish.

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