Another one

[Roger Shuy]

on 4/24/05 6:51 PM, James C Stalker at stalker at MSU.EDU wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James C Stalker <stalker at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Another one
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> I did a google search for "post hole toad."  The only, singular site was a
> porno site, analbuy.com.
>
> So what was the context of this phrase?
>
> Jim

As nearly as I can remember now, it was a reference to how much trouble they
could get into.
roger
>
> Roger Shuy writes:
>
>> on 4/24/05 9:54 AM, sagehen at sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: Another one
>>>
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>>> Roger Shuy writes:
>>>> ........."That's deeper than a post-hole toad." .... 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 this was simply meant to suggest a degree of trouble.  A toad
>>> that had fallen into a deep hole as narrow as a post-hole digger produces
>>> might well be unable to get out.
>>> A. Murie
>>>
>> I think you're right but I'm actually less interested in the meaning than in
>> the extent of the use of this expression. These taped speakers used other
>> colorful language throughout (most of which I was at least familiar), but
>> I'd never heard this one before and was just asking the list if they had.
>> I'm getting the impression that "deeper than a post-hole toad" was just a
>> one-time colorful way of saying something otherwise more prosaic like
>> "really in this thing deep."
>>
>> roger
>>
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>
>
> James C. Stalker
> Department of English
> Michigan State University
>