Texas phrases (If ifs and buts were candy and nuts...merry Christmas)

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Fri Dec 1 14:26:15 UTC 2006


No disrespect to dInIsIz daddy, but that's a well known proverb in our rural districts.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Texas phrases (If ifs and buts were candy and nuts...merry
Christmas)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Point taken, dInIs. And yo' daddy sho' had the poten'niss grasp on the
vicissitudes of life. I'm going to add that one to my own repertoire.

-Wilson

On 11/30/06, Dennis R. Preston
wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

> Subject: Re: Texas phrases (If ifs and buts were candy and nuts...merry
> Christmas)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson,
>
> What's annoying about it? I attribute pert nigh everything I say
> that's of any folk value to my "old daddy," usually prefacing it with
> "As my old daddy used to say...." My students even made me a t-shirt
> with some the more delightful ones on the back.
>
> E.g.,
>
> ME: When you gone finish that dang dissertation proposal?
>
> STUDENT: Well, I hope....
>
> ME: As my old daddy used to say, hope in one hand and shit in the
> other and see which fills up first.
>
> dInIs
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >Poster: Wilson Gray
> >Subject: Re: Texas phrases (If ifs and buts were candy and nuts...merry
> > Christmas)
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Re: An East Texas slogan: "has become his own bluebird on the ground."
> >In black East Texas, the saying is: "has got a bird's nest on the
> >ground." It's one of my mother's most annoying sayings, inasmuch as
> >she never fails to credit it to her father, "As Daddy used to say,
> >'You've got a bird's nest on the ground.'" FWIW, her father was born
> >in 1877.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >On 11/28/06, Bapopik at aol.com wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
> >> Subject: Texas phrases (If ifs and buts were candy and nuts...merry
> >> Christmas)
> >>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> My website (_www.barrypopik.com_ (http://www.barrypopik.com) ) had 14,579
> >> hits yesterday, on 5,667 visits. If this keeps up, I can afford a Texas
> >> Jack-in-the-Box meal every day!...I still have NY ads in my Texas
> >>section. So much
> >> for Google keywords.
> >> ...
> >> Maybe someone can help on Texas phrase (only cite):
> >> ...
> >> ...
> >> 22 March 1975, Port Arthur (TX) News, "Don Meredith the actor -- the
> >> only way is up," pg. 16:
> >> Dandy Don, once described by a member of the press as resident humorist,
> >> country philosopher and sometime Cosell-baiter during four seasons on ABC's
> >> Monday Night Football, has become his own bluebird on the ground
> >>-- an East Texas
> >> slogan meaning he doesn't have to climb the tree to pick the eggs anymore.
> >> ...
> >> ...
> >> I looked at the Yale Dictionary of Quotations, and "Don Meredith" is not
> >> there. No "turn out the lights, the party's over"? So, I checked "Willie
> >> Nelson," the song's author. No Willie Nelson??
> >> ...
> >> No "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas"??
> >> ...
> >> FYI, some recent Texas phrase posts (any help appreciated):
> >> ...
> >>
> >>_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/if_ifs_and_buts_were_candy_an
> >> d_nuts_wed_all_have_a_merry_christmas/_
> >>
> >>(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/if_ifs_and_buts_were_candy_and_nuts_wed_all_have_a_merry_christmas/
> >> )
> >> ...
> >>
> >>_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/stick_a_fork_in_him_hes_done/
> >> _
> >>
> >>(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/stick_a_fork_in_him_hes_done/)
> >> ...
> >>
> >>_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/turn_out_the_lights_the_party
> >> s_over/_
> >>
> >>(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/turn_out_the_lights_the_partys_over/)
> >> ...
> >>
> >>_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/give_a_texan_an_enema_and_you
> >> _can_bury_him_in_a_matchbox/_
> >>
> >>(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/give_a_texan_an_enema_and_you_can_bury_him_in_a_matchbox/)
> >> ...
> >>
> >>_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/i_wish_it_would_rain_not_for_
> >> me_cuz_ive_seen_it_but_for_my_7_year_old/_
> >>
> >>(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/i_wish_it_would_rain_not_for_me_cuz_ive_seen_it_but_for_my_7_yea
> >> r_old/)
> >> ...
> >>
> >>_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/if_god_didnt_want_us_to_eat_m
> > > eat_he_wouldnt_have_invented_steak_sauce/_
> >>
> >>(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/if_god_didnt_want_us_to_eat_meat_he_wouldnt_have_invented_steak_
> >> sauce/)
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >-Sam Clemens
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> --
> It should be the chief aim of a university professor to exhibit
> himself [sic] in his own true character - that is, as an ignorant man
> thinking, actively utilizing his small share of knowledge. Alfred
> North Whitehead
>
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1036 USA
> Office: (517) 353-4736
> Fax: (517) 353-3755
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam Clemens

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