Page's colorful phrase

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS II has the related "ass-deep to a tall Indian" from 1939, s.v.
"Indian" because of the predominance in the corpus of "hip-deep" and
"hip-high" forms.

  The precise version recalled by Page's father is a new one on me.

  HDAS 1 also contains an entry for "asshole-deep" all by itself, but
only from 1963. Whippersnappin' lurkers may like to know that graphic
phrases like these, no matter how metaphorical, were proportionally much
scarcer in print before the early 1960s, owing mostly to concerns about
propriety.  I have little doubt that "ass-deep" (1950) and
"asshole-deep" are considerably older in crude use than the record suggests.

  Google reveals the following current forms:

  "asshole-deep to a big, tall Indian"
[mommascorner.com/index/momma/comments/thanksgiving1/]

  "...to a ten-foot Indian" [members.aol.com/GLKS/colloq.html]

  "...nine-foot Indian"
[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.smokers.pipes/msg/e674f8f2dee91670?hl=en&]

  "...tall Indian" [ask.metafilter.com/mefi/49829]

  "...ten-foot man"
[abreazylife.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_abreazylife_archive.html]

  "...giraffe"
[bike-riding-donut-guy.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_bike-riding-donut-guy_archive.html]  (elsewhere "tall giraffe," "giraffe on
steroids")

  "...very tall grizzly"
[http://groups.google.com/group/talk.politics.guns/msg/064e920f17e0de01?hl=en&]

  "ass-deep to a tall Paiute" [www.kellnet.com/veterans/jm.htm]
(elsewhere "Indian")

  "...tall Swede"
[barkbarkwoofwoof.blogspot.com/2004/12/sunday-reading_12.html]

  "...tall nigger"
[caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=6th&navby=case&no=99a0326a]

  "...tall horse" [www.textfiles.com/media/mov_goof.txt]

  "...tall injun standing on a pine stump"
[searcyyesteryear.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_searcyyesteryear_archive.html]

  "...nine-foot Indian"
[facelessknob.blogspot.com/2005/02/floaters.html]

  JL





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