99.44% pure

[Wilson Gray]

I haven't heard "eating a peck of dirt" before, but I have heard, only
among black Texans, that "A little grit is good for the craw," with
respect to picking up and eating food that's fallen to the floor.

For the record, grit eally is good for the craws of birds that have them.

Isn't there also a saying used by Northern whites, WRT to the same
subject, to the effect that, if dropped food is picked up off the
floor within a certain brief span of time, it's okay to eat it?

-Wilson

On 12/23/06, RonButters at aol.com <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      99.44% pure
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >=20
> >=20
> Hmmmmm, the math would seem to be pretty simple. If you have 100 pounds of=20
> ivory soap and it contains .56% impurity, that would amount to 100 x .0056,=20=
> or=20
> .56 pounds or 4.48 ounces. In an 8-ounce bar of soap, tht would amount to .0=
> 224=20
> ounces. So the "once molecule for a vbar of soap the size of the distance=20
> between the sun and Jupiter seems to be seriously   in error. I'm not sure w=
> hat=20
> math Paige was using--maybe Paige can elaborate?
>
> Of course the claims are puffery, even so. And if you think about it, who=20
> wants .0224 ounces of impurtity in her hand soap? What if it is a highly tox=
> ic=20
> radioactive substance? Drool from the soap-maker's lips? Dead skin from the=20
> soapmaker's unwashed hand? Roach droppings? Mascara? An eyelash? And is each=
>  vbar=20
> of soap 99.44% puire, or is that just every ton of soap that comes out of th=
> e=20
> factory? If each ton contains one dead mouse chpped up and pureed and=20
> distributed in the first 500 bars, and the remaining bars are correspondingl=
> y "pure"=20
> (enough to make the average come out at 99.44% for the whole ton) does that=20
> count?
>
> One of my mother's sayings was, "Well, they say we all eat a peck of dirt in=
> =20
> our lives." Did she make this up, or have others heard it as well?
>
>
> >=20
> > "hpst at earthlink.net" <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
> > =A0 ---------------------- Information from the mail header=20
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "hpst at earthlink.net"
> > Subject: Re: 99.44% pure
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ---
> > --
> >=20
> > Allison,
> >=20
> > My friend James "The Amazing" Randi once asked a chemist about the claim o=
> n
> > a homeopathic remedy what x% pure meant.
> >=20
> > His friend replied that it meant that if you had a ball of pure water whic=
> h
> > extended from the sun to as I recall the orbit of Jupiter only one molecul=
> e
> > of any other substance could exist.
> >=20
> > I've done some of the math on this, and Randi's friend was totally correct=
> .
> >=20
> > Bullshit is bullshit and if you look at the labels on some homeopathic
> > remedies their claims are physically impossible.
> >=20
> > Page Stephens
> >=20
> >=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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