"take a Dixie"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:07 PM -0400 8/15/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 3:30 PM, George Thompson
><george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>>  took a Dixie
>
>Following Larry and context, my WAG is that it means
>
>"kicked the bucket"
>
>When things "go south (to Dixie)," they go bad in some way.
>
Right; I was assuming from the context ("using a phrase to connote
his mortality") that he was referring to bucket-kicking (or at least
that's how he was interpreted by the Times reporter).  Otherwise, in
a neutral context, I could imagine assigning other meanings to, say,
"I'll see you in a bit. I have to take a Dixie."

LH

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