pail of tears

[Beverly Flanigan]

No, that's not "vale of tears."  In the NY Times last week, I saw another
gem:  Someone wrote an article that mentioned someone crying "a pail of
tears."  (Sorry, I always seem to recycle my newspapers before I remember
to clip for ADS referencing.)  Now, if the writer is a Northerner, I
suppose the phrase makes sense, but I'm a Northerner too and I've never
ever heard the common idiom phrased in this way.  Has anyone else?  And
would this imply that one would also say "she cried a pailfull" or "his
tears came down in pails"?  "I'm going to cry me a river" is another
matter, of course.