God only gave me two hands. The rest he gave to the Indians.

Grant Barrett gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG
Mon Aug 4 17:16:32 UTC 2008


On Aug 4, 2008, at 12:58, Charles Doyle wrote:

> Yes, like Mark, I'd say it's a proverb or catch phrase + a
> (variable) coda.

Perhaps, but I've tried numerous searches in which I wildcarded the
nouns or verbs, or tried different, common ones, and others in which I
changed or wildcarded the pronouns, to no avail. I've also tried
stripping it down to the basics, taking it down the minimum form in
which any meaning is still retained.

For example, "two hands" is likely to be unchanged whatever form this
saying might have taken elsewhere, though perhaps "ten fingers" or
"two arms" or "one body" might be possible.

For example, I've searched for the lord|almighty|jesus|holy father|He
in the place of "God," and Injuns|heathens|pagans|natives|Native
Americans in place of "Indians."

Grant

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