a desperado's brag

[Jonathan Lighter]

Grant,
Vaguely comparable, from
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/soc.culture.irish/browse_frm/thread/b18b31a07243cf8/6bf9567c8b057b0a?q=%22before+God+knows+you%27re+dead%22&_done=%2Fgroups%3Fq%3D%22before+God+knows+you%27re+dead%22%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2004-11,GGLD:en%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg%26&_doneTitle=Back+to+Search&&d#6bf9567c8b057b0a
"BTW, is it true that every Irish blessing has a corresponding curse?

i.e. May you be a half hour in hell before God knows you're dead."

Though I couldn't find it on the Net, I did once read or hear "in hell before God gets the news."

JL


Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Grant Barrett
Subject: Re: a desperado's brag
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On Jan 24, 2005, at 16:02, George Thompson wrote:
> 1866: Lane was a man of iron nerve; he seemed to think no more of the
> hanging than a man would of eating his breakfast.

That reminds me of another expression, supposedly said by men about to
be hung. A year ago I found an item in a newspaper article posted to a
genealogy email list for Wayne Co., Missouri, where my father's family
is from. The article concerns two fellows are accused of murdering a
man for $700. (I'm not related to any of them). The article (15 May
1902) ends thusly:

> This is the blackest crime and darkest spot in the history of Wayne
> County. Brown has as yet made no confession but is reported to have
> said that if he is executed, he desires to be hanged 15 minutes before
> 12 o’clock so as to get to hell in time for dinner.

I liked the last remark, so I hit Google and found that Ruloff's
Restaurant in Ithaca claims Edward Rulof said much the same thing. Dick
Bailey (who published "Rogue Scholar," a book about the criminal and
philologist Edward Ruloff, last year), says there's no record of Ruloff
having said it. Then I found another link for a fellow in Wyoming who
supposedly said it, too, 5 March 1886. So it's one of those fanciful
pass-alongs, I guess.

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org



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