Another one

[James Smith]

...familiar with post hole diggers...not too familiar
with toads.  That said, my interpretation would be
that the toad was in a hole it couldn't get out of.



--- Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
> I'm one more native Texan not familiar with this
> expression, but I am
> familiar with the tool called a "post-hole digger"
> and with toads.
> Toads don't live underground. But, if they did,
> they'd have to live
> below a certain depth, lest they be struck with a
> post-hole digger (the
> tool) wielded by a post-hole digger (the man using
> the tool). A toad
> struck by or caught up in a post-hole digger would
> certainly be
> mortally wounded, if not killed outright. So, if
> there was such a thing
> as a post-hole toad, such a toad living deeper under
> the surface than
> the deepest reach - two or three feet, perhaps? - of
> a post-hole digger
> would be as safe as home in bed with the covers over
> its head. Anything
> even deeper than a post-hole toad is not something
> that anyone needs to
> concern himself with or be concerned by.
>
> Naturally, the above is just a WAG.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
>
> On Apr 23, 2005, at 7:44 PM, Roger Shuy wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Roger Shuy <rshuy at MONTANA.COM>
> > Subject:      Another one
> >
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> > 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
> >
>

James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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