"from a hole in the ground" antedating

[Jonathan Lighter]

I didn't mean to suggest it was obsolete. Far from it!

  Other possibilities include "from one's elbow" and "from third base," both also in HDAS.

  JL

Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Beverly Flanigan
Subject: Re: "from a hole in the ground" antedating
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This was still common in my father's cursing lexicon, circa 1950 (usually
with the adjective 'dumb').

At 01:20 PM 8/8/2006, you wrote:
>Speaking of Civil War-era locutions, here's a colorful and significant
>antedating. If I remember correctly, this too is from a court-martial
>record (but it may have been a letter or personal journal):
>
> 1866 in Andrew E. Masich _The Civil War in Arizona_ (Norman: U. of
> Okla. Press, 2006) 101: So drunk that he did not know his ass from a hole
> in the ground.
>
> JL
>
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