"Kicking footballs"

[Hillary Brown]

Also "up your butt and around the corner." That's the version I'm most
familiar with. But I don't think it necessarily implies that the asker of
the question _should_ know where the item is.

hb

On 10/28/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Kicking footballs"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 10/27/06, Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I've always considered the phrase "up your ass kicking footballs" (as in
> if
> > you ask someone where the phone is, they might say "If it was up your
> ass
> > kicking footballs you'd know it/know where it is") to be fairly common.
> But
> > imagine my horror when I look in The Google and only find two hits (one
> with
> > "kicking" and one with "kickin"). Am I wrong? Is this not a common
> phrase?
> > I've heard it quite a few times here in Wisconsin (mainly central WI),
> but
> > now I'm wondering if I haven't heard it from the same three people all
> my
> > life. My world really isn't that small, is it?
>
> FWIW, variations on this theme can readily be found without the
> "kicking footballs" elaboration:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q="if+*+was|were+up+your+ass"
>
> For instance, an indie band out of Baltimore recorded an album with
> the title, "'If It Was Up Your Ass You'd Know It."
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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