"black as Caesar's tail"

[Scot LaFaive]

What about "black as the devil's anus?" I'm not even sure if that is "real"
or if I made it up. I think I've heard it before. Kind of similar to
"Caesar's tail" if Caesar is considered evil.

Scot LaFaive


>From: James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "black as Caesar's tail"
>Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:18:21 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>Subject:      Re: "black as Caesar's tail"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I wonder whether there was originally some sort of deliberate
>contrast at work between this and "Great Caesar's ghost" -- which
>would presumably be white. A bit of a stretch, to be sure, but not
>utterly impossible as an influence at least. "Great Caesar's ghost"
>came around in the 19th century, as a replacement for "Great God" and
>other such terms; if we could determine that it was present and known
>at the time "black as Caesar's tail" was first used, and if there
>were any other similar-style references to Caesar, it could be
>interesting and might suggest a similar sort of origin to that of
>"cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey," which was one
>of a string of brass monkey references including "hot enough to melt
>the nose off a brass monkey" and "cold enough to freeze the tail off
>a brass monkey" (thanks to Michael Quinion for the the monkey
>business -- http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bra1.htm).
>
>Are there early cites for "black as _____'s tail" where ____ is not
>Caesar? A person who on occasion said "Great Caesar's ghost" might
>make a variation on something like "black as Nero's tail" or even
>"black as a demon's tail" (or whatever) for the usual reasons of
>self-amusement and self-reference.
>
>Of course, why Caesar's ghost, and not somone else's, in the first
>place? Perhaps the influence went in the other direction. Or perhaps
>there was a vogue for Ceasarean references... I'd dig, but I have
>other things demanding my attention.
>
>James Harbeck.
>
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