[Info-vax] The nice part of about working on OpenVMS is that you can wear whatever color undies you want

[Jay E. Morris]

On 1/18/2011 12:31 AM, JF Mezei wrote:
> Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
>
>>> I usually go commando so I guess I already meet the flesh-colored
>>> requirement
>>
>> English is my first language and I use it a lot but I have never heard
>> this expression.  Please enlighten.
>
> One of the alst NBC TV programmes that was succesfull was a series
> called "friends". In it, one of the characters started the expression
> "going commando" and it seems to have gone mainstream. It means you wear
> no underwear under your pants.

Much earlier than that, at least Viet Nam war. I was going commando in 
the swamps of Ft. Stewart GA in very early  80s.  Form the great god Wiki:

The origins of the phrase are uncertain, with some speculating that it 
may refer to being "out in the open" or "ready for action". Slate 
magazine's Daniel Engber dates the modern usage to college campuses 
circa 1974, where it was perhaps associated with soldiers in the Vietnam 
War, who were reputed to go without underwear to "increase ventilation 
and reduce moisture."[3] The earliest known use of the term in print 
occurred on January 22, 1985 when Jim Spencer wrote in the Chicago 
Tribune "Furthermore, colored briefs are 'sleazy' and going without 
underwear ("going commando", as they say on campus) is simply gross." A 
1996 episode of the television sitcom Friends, "The One Where No One's 
Ready", has been credited with introducing the term "into the popular 
vernacular."