Another one

[Roger Shuy]

About 25 years ago I was working on a criminal sting case with lots of
undercover tapes. The speakers were West Texans and the tapes were not
always very clear. But just the same I had to make a transcript for the
trial. I could transcribe most of the stuff on the tapes but one sentence
stumped me for quite a while. I couldn't tell if it was important to the
case or simply small talk of some kind. After many listenings on different
equipment, even slowing it down and speeding it up, I finally got it--the
man was saying,  "That's deeper than a post-hole toad." This expression had
absolutely no relevance to the case but I earned an hour or so of consulting
pay just the same. I've never heard this one before or since and even the
native Texan lawyers I worked with couldn't remember ever having heard it. I
wonder if any list members knowlegeable about  Texas speech are familiar
with it.

roger