Rat-tail(ed) [comb and] broom

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/4/2010 09:36 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>My mother also used a type of comb that she called a "rat-tailed"
>comb. She was also an East-Texan: born in Longview, reared in
>Marshall.

Did the comb look like and was it used like the
one in the video one can see on the web?  (Google "rat-tail comb".)

I associate "rat-tail comb" with one having a
long handle (as contrasted with one having
bristles up to each end), but not being much into
feminine hair styling I was not familiar with the
ratty tail (narrow diameter, too narrow for a
facile handle) and the use videoed.

I have something similar to Wilson's description
of his "ignorance stick", only it is of course
not pushed, that has soft "bristles" and is
useful for cleaning up fine particles.  I too,
like his wife, call it a "dust broom" (NY City),
not a "rat-tail broom".  There's a picture of
something similar to mine at
http://www.bobbyberkhome.com/show_product/25413/?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=datafeed&utm_term=25413

Joel


>-Wilson
>
>On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 8:43 PM, Darla Wells <lethe9 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the
> mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Darla Wells <lethe9 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Rat-tail(ed) broom
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > never heard that one, but we use _rat-tailed comb_ a whole lot
> > Darla
> >
> > 2010/5/4 Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Rat-tail(ed) broom
> >>
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> >>
> >> This is probably more a DARE thing than an HDAS type of thing.
> >>
> >> There are only three hits that Google considers to be relevant.
> >>
> >> IAC, in Saint Louis, _rat-tailed broom_, like "whisk broom," is the
> >> only name used for this handy object. Unfortunately, it's not likely
> >> to come up as the subject of a random conversation. So, I have no idea
> >> whether this handy form of broom is known / used elsewhere, perhaps
> >> under a different name.
> >>
> >> Because it comes in so handy (we have cats), I *keeps* me a rat-tailed
> >> broom. I've asked my wife about her familiarity with this tool and she
> >> *thinks* that it *may* be called a "dust broom" in in NE PA.
> >>
> >> IAC, it looks roughly like an "ignorant stick" / "ignorance stick" -
> >> pushbroom - with the handle removed and a third or so of the bristles
> >> removed from the head, with the empty space carved, so to speak, into
> >> a handle.
> >>
> >> BTW, I once read somewhere - Mario Pei, yet again? - that "ignorant
> >> stick" originally referred to the spade as a tool of ditch-diggers.
> >> But, IME, it was:
> >>
> >> "... pushing the ignorant stick ..."
> >>
> >> "What's that?"
> >>
> >> "Doing porter-work."
> >>
> >> -Wilson
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -Wilson
> >> =96=96=96
> >> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint t=
> > o
> >> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >> =96Mark Twain
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible
> > warning. -Catherine Aird
> >
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> >
>
>
>
>--
>-Wilson
>­­­
>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.
>­Mark Twain
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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