Brickmush ?

[G S C]

Looks as though Barry's concern with context, and one of his
accompanying statements, might be closer to the mark.  Several years
ago, a neighbor of mine mentioned that some re-plastering work had to be
done in his house.  [His home had a layer of plaster on top of drywall
sheets.]  He spoke (several times) of having been lucky to find a
mushman to do the plaster work.  According to my neighbor, mushmen were
folk who could apply plaster to wall lathe, or apply a layer of plaster
on top of wallboard or drywall.  The mushman did not work with drywall,
as in installing it, but he would apply plaster over top of drywall, or
patch a hole in drywall.  [My presumption was that the plaster mixture
was the mush.]  In any event, in this era, mushmen were difficult to
find.

Generally, it can be presumed that standard wall-plaster is better than
corn meal, for patching walls.

Hope that this info is closer to the mark, even though it doesn't fully
provide the answer for brickmush man.

George S. Cole   gscole at ark.ship.edu
Shippensburg University