"from a hole in the ground" antedating

[Beverly Flanigan]

I know you didn't; I'm just constantly amazed to discover curses/slanders
that as a child I thought were unique to my father (and so very inventive)
are used everywhere and go way back!  He WAS a pretty creative curser though.

At 01:56 PM 8/8/2006, you wrote:
>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
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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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