keep a cow

[Jonathan Lighter]

My grandfather used to say "Aw, go fly a kite !" in the 1950s.  "Go keep a cow !" would have been meaningless, as these were known only by rumor.

JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20keep=20a=20cow?=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a message dated 4/23/05 9:51:30 AM, rshuy at MONTANA.COM writes:


> My late father, who would be 101 now if he were still alive, used some
> expressions that I've not heard from others. I wonder if any one else has
> heard the expression of disgust said to someone else, "Oh, go keep a cow."
> He lived all his life in central to northern Ohio.
>
> Roger
>

This seems to me to mean the same thing as "Oh, go fly a kite," which was
very common in east-central Iowa in the 1950s. "Oh, go keep a cow" sounds vaguely
familiar, but I can't say for sure that any of my grandparents used it (or
didn't).

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com