Nothing beats "homemade" (was Ugly as homemade sin (1890)

[David Bowie]

From:    "Dennis R. Preston" preston at MSU.EDU

: I am a more frequent user of the variant "homemade shit" myself,
: though not with "ugly." It wonders me that "homemade" is simply an
: aggrandizer which can be inserted in the slot indicated in the as X
: as _ Y formula (alternatively Xer than _ Y), e.g., ugly as (homemade)
: sin, dumber'n (homemade) shit, with perhaps some semantic
: restrictions (no count nouns?), e.g., *as big as a homemade horse and
: some pragmatic ones (no complimentary or even neutral expressions?),
: e.g., *as easy as homemade pie.

: I suspect a connection with "downhome" or even simply "home," which
: suggests authenticity or nitty-gritty, so that such expression tell
: us that somebody is not just as dumb as any old (maybe even [shudder]
: storebought) shit but as dumb as the real thing (i.e., homemade).

Agreed all 'round--so I just wanted to add to the discussion the (emerging?)
orthographic variant of "homemade" as "homade" or even "ho made".

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one subject to double-takes when I see a
restaurant advertising "ho made mashed potatoes" (which is bizarre on *two*
levels--what are hos doing making mashed potatoes, and why did they go
through the trouble of carting it from someone's house to a restaurant?)

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.