"Don't shit where you eat"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Never heard of it before now.

  JL

Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dennis Preston

Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
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Wilson,

This is an interesting joke; a common piece of racist folk stuff
where I grew up, around Louisville KY, (apparently told with some
degree of belief) was that black people shook hands with their left
hands customarily. Is (was) this widespread?

dInIs



>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Ii agree with what you say WRT to Muslim custom. I read about it in a
>book, about fifty years ago. ;-) But wouldn't that also be true of
>Americans? Wouldn't you switch hands or put down what you were
>holding, in order to be able to shake hands with another American with
>your right hand? Or maybe I'm being hypersensitive.
>
>White guy offers right hand to black guy:
>
>"Happy New Year!"
>
>Black guy extends right hand.
>
>White guy withdraws right hand and offers left hand:
>
>"Oops! I'm sorry! I use my *left* hand to shake with niggers."
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 7/6/07, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Beverly Flanigan
>> Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 04:46 PM 7/6/2007, you wrote:
>> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >-----------------------
>> >Sender: American Dialect Society
>> >Poster: Barbara Need
>> >Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
>> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >At 23:11 -0400 03/7/07, sagehen wrote:
>> > > >Sorry for the crude title.
>> > >>
>> > >>Has anyone searched to find out what the earliest version of this must
>> > >>have been? I would doubt that it was that phrasing.
>> > >>
>> > >>Anyone suggest what the original sentiment might have been?
>> > >>
>> > >>Sam Clements
>> > > ~~~~~~~~~~
>> > >I remember reading about the Essenes or some similar group -- associated
>> > >with the Dead Sea Scrolls, perhaps? -- that had strictures concerning the
>> > >roles of the two hands: the one that went into the communal pot
>>at mealtime
>> > >would never be the one that wiped one's bottom. Whether the
>>left was the
>> > >"clean" and the right the "unclean" I don't remember, but I believe the
>> > >roles were immutable.
>> > >AM
>> >
>> >I remember a month-long Sunday school sequence on the Arab world
>> >(mid-70s, Unitarian Church) in which we were instructed to eat with
>> >the right hand (no utensils!) because the left hand was traditionally
>> >used to wipe oneself.
>> >
>> >Barbara
>> >
>> >Barbara Need
>> >UChicago
>> >
>> >------------------------------------------------------------
>> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> Still true for Muslims. If I'm holding something in my right hand and
>> unthinkingly shake hands with a Muslim student with my left hand, I
>> immediately know I've committed a faux pas from the look on the face of my
>> student.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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'l Clemens
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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