"call a spade a spade"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Boy, that's stupid! 
 
JL

--- On Mon, 6/16/08, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:

From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
Subject: "call a spade a spade"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date: Monday, June 16, 2008, 6:39 AM

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
Subject:      "call a spade a spade"
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For some speakers of American English (by no means all of them), the word
"spade" has lost all applications except for use as a derogatory
racial designation.

On the reanalysis of the proverbial phrase "call a spade a spade,"
one might consult Wolfgang Mieder's monograph _Call a Spade a Spade: From
Classical Phrase to Racial Slur_ (NY: Peter Lang, 2002).

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:02:08 -0400
>From: Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>

The Same Dowd piece, datelined Paris, also included this:

>'Angela Merkel dodged when asked at a press conference whether she
would miss W., but said she liked being able to "call a spade a spade with
him."'

>Twas that a fox paw, an indication of a lack of familiarity with American
vernacular, or merely a hopefully-NOT noteworthy phrase?

>dh

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