Ricky-ticky

When I was in The Marines,one of my instructors was in the habit of using the phrase;"Most Rikki Tik" whenever something was to be done quickly.In the thirty years since, I have never heard anyone but me use the phrase and I don't use it much because most people respond as though I've made it up for lack of something more intelligent to say. Now that I have found this wonderful resource, I'm hoping to resolve this once and for all.I didn't find it in the data base. Has anyone else ever heard this used? Bob Yeomans

Kipling's story: Rikki-Tiki-Tavi is a brave mongoose who defeats the evil cobra (who name escapes me now) with a single-minded devotion to duty, persistently defending the safety of his human masters at any cost. Sounds like something a Marine would admire.

Here's another ricky-ticky phrase.

RICKY-TICK - "Applied to a simple repetitive rhythm, as in early 'straight' jazz, and hence to rag-time and old-fashioned jazz; imitative.Hence ricky-tick, ricky-ticky used as an adjective to denote music or a tempo that is repetitive or dull ." From Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang by John Ayto (Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1999).