Take the rag off the bush

[Wilson Gray]

This reminds me of a bit of patter (I've been using "rap" in this
sense, but it seems to me that what people actually said in those days
was "patter") used by Saint Louis's original black DJ, "Spider" Burks
(of course he had shows entitled "Spinning With Spider" and "The
Spider's Web"!): "They (the musicians who developed what was then
known as "modern" jazz) _took the ship out of the bottle_ and made it
stand for a brand-new sound."

-Wilson

On 10/19/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Take the rag off the bush
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just quickly checking the books near at hand:  B. J. Whiting's _Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases_ (1977) gives "To take the rag off the bush" (#R10), with two quotations from 1810.  Of course, that doesn't answer the etiological question . . . .
>
> --Charlie
> _________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:18:28 -0500
> >From: Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at HOTMAIL.COM>
> >Subject: Take the rag off the bush
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >Found this in The Met by Chance (1873) by Olive Logan. The phrase is very strange, but sounds nice. As does "jackassiness."
>
> >"To come here and listen to a play that's squalled at you in language you don't understand, jest takes the rag off the bush for jackassiness, according to my notion." (p. 264)
>
> >This person (http://www.beatlelinks.net/forums/printthread.php?t=3D16144&pa=ge=3D3&pp=3D20) seems to think it comes from a Ireland, but the etymology sounds too perfect to be true. Anyone know if this is true?
>
> >Scot LaFaive
>
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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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