red-headed stepchild

[Mullins, Bill]

News; International
Hillary Clinton Has Competition; Senate Averts Disaster; More Dead in
Iraq
Paul Begala, Terry Holt, Wolf Blitzer
4,219 words
24 May 2005
CNN: Crossfire

"BEGALA: I certainly wish Ms. Pirro the best of good fortune as she
loses desperately to the most talented woman in American politics.
Hillary is going to beat her like a bad piece of meat, like a red-
headed mule, she's going to beat her like a red-headed stepchild. I hope
she steps up there. She is going to do to him what she -- what -- to Ms.
Pirro -- what she did to Rick Lazio... "



Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia)
February 26, 2005 Saturday
SECTION: BAM; Pg. M08
HEADLINE: Father figure for harder journalism
BYLINE: Gas Wylde

"When hearing Thompson describe the relish with which he literally beat
Nixon "like a mad dog with mange" or verbally whipped him "like a
red-headed mule", anyone with a thirst for reading harder journalism
falls hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Thompson."
[This seems to imply that the phrase can be found in Hunter S.
Thompson's writing.]


Santa Fe New Mexican (New Mexico)
November 15, 2001, Thursday
SECTION: Opine; Pg. A-7
HEADLINE: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
"I'll tell you why: because he would get flogged like a red-headed mule
outside of his district, besides the fact that it would be
unconstitutional."



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of George Thompson
> Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:39 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: red-headed stepchild
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: red-headed stepchild
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> This expression was tossed about here some time ago.
>
> I recently saw the expression "to beat like a red-headed
> mule", deftly combining the red-headed stepchild motif into
> the expression "beat like a rented mule".
>
> Sorry that I do not have a reference; it didn't turn up in a
> quick search of Proquest.  I saw it while travelling in New
> England, and so would expect it to have been in either the
> Boston Globe, the Portland Press-Herald, or the NYTimes, all
> of which I saw on one day or another.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
> Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>