"Hard times make monkey eat cayenne pepper" (Clarence Thomas's grandfather)

[Barry Popik]

More on the monkey eating red pepper (cayenne) proverb. Now, if only I
could get the monkey to eat my wife's tuna casserole--only kidding.
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
'Gombo Zhèbes', little dictionary of Creole proverbs, selected from
six ... - Page 25
by Gombo Zhèbes - 1885

Misery makes the monkey eat red pepper."— [Martinique.] 208. • " Mo
bien comm mo
yé," parole rare. ("Je me trouve bien comme Je suis"— ces sont des paroles ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
Occidental Gleanings - Page 192
by Lafcadio Hearn - 1925

"Miser ca lair macaque manger piment"; or "Want makes the monkey eat
red pepper,"
is a powerful illustration of the pressure exerted by necessity. ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
 The Road: A Romance of the Proletarian Revolution - Page 336
by George Spiro - 1933 - 623 pages

Hard times will make a monkey eat red pepper." Eugene asked his
opinion whether this crisis would open the eyes of the workers. ...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES/NEWSPAPERARCHIVE)
12 May 1952, Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) Free Press, pg. 33, col. 3:
"Hard times," Heloise said, "make the monkey eat red pepper."
("Pound Foolish" by Robert Molloy, copyright 1950 -- ed.)
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,810583,00.html
Monday, Nov. 03, 1958

Hoodlum Frank Costello came when he was called last week, began paying
the four years and 1½ months he still owes on an income tax rap.
Before catching his free bus to the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg,
Pa., "The Prime Minister" told reporters he would be "put in solitary
for 30 days, but I'm not really bitter." Rolling across the Jersey
Meadows, he might well have recalled a favorite axiom learned during
his East Harlem youth: "Tough times make monkeys eat red peppers."
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
Book World
Pay-Per-View - Washington Post - ProQuest Archiver - Dec 28, 1979 ...
SC, and orphaned at birth, She was exemplified and frequently repeats
something She was told as A child: "Hard times will make A monkey eat
red pepper."
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
The Wisdom of Many: essays on the proverb - Page 144
by Wolfgang Mieder - Reference - 1981 - 326 pages

Examples include "Hard times will make a monkey eat red pepper" and
"That which goes around the devil's back must buckle under his belly.
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
MINERS RESERVE JUDGMENT ON PACT
$2.95 - Lexington Herald Leader - NewsBank - Sep 23, 1984 Hard times
will make a monkey eat red pepper," said Hibbs, a UMW member for 29
years. Akers and Hibbs will have the chance to inspect the proposal in
detail ...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
For Dinkins, Pomp, Ceremony, Triumph And a Dream Realized
New York Times - Jan 1, 1990 ''You know, hard times will make a monkey
eat red pepper.'' It is The City's ability to survive hard times that
will dominate Mr. Dinkins's first days, ...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
TRAINER ARCEL LIVING HISTORY
Pay-Per-View - Sunday Oregonian - LexisNexis - Aug 25, 1991 Tough
times, Ray ARCEL likes to say, make monkeys eat red peppers. ``It
makes me sad,'' ARCEL said recently at Trump Plaza, in Atlantic City
to be honored ...
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(GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVES)
It's the afterthought that doesn't count.(Nation)(Pruden On...
Subscription - Washington Times - HighBeam Research - Feb 4, 1997 Hard
Times, a famous American philosopher king was fond of reminding
everyone, will make a monkey eat red pepper. Our pols are the proof of
it, ...

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org