lipstick on a pig

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Meanwhile, I figured Scot meant he sat through 20 minutes of gibberish
to catch Grant on *the air*.


On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 1:24 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I don't believe you, Scot. I think that you meant to post: "... to catch
> you on their show."
> Au contraire, mon fr=E8re. I did actually mean to use "there." Does that use
> of "there" seem unusual to you? We do talk funny up here in WI sometimes.
>
> Scot
>
> On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 11:29 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I don't believe you, Scot. I think that you meant to post:
> >
> > "... to catch you on their show."
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 1:44 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >>to catch you on their
> > >
> > > Of course I meant "there."
> > > --"This is the most public yet of my many humilations."
> > >
> > > Scot
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 12:42 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >>  I sat through 20 minutes of gibberish to catch you on their, Grant. Of
> > >> all the worthwhile things to talk about with lexicography, it's a shame
> > >> most people only care about it with such silly "issues."
> > >>
> > >> Scot
> > >>
> > >>   On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 10:59 AM, Grant Barrett <
> > >> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> It looks like Google's new newspaper initiative is paying off already.
> > >>>
> > >>> Here's a 198o use that, while it doesn't mention lipstick, is entirely
> > >>> in line with the other variants: "dressing up a pig/hog," "putting
> > >>> makeup on a pig/ hog", "perfume on a pig/hog," etc.
> > >>>
> > >>> http://tinyurl.com/piglipstick
> > >>>
> > >>> 1980 Quad-City Herald (Brewster, Wash.) (Jan. 31) "The Country Parson=
> "
> > >>> p. 3: You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on it's [sic] tail, spray
> > >>> it with perfume, but it is still a pig.
> > >>>
> > >>> By the way, I'm scheduled to speak about this on Fox News today at
> > >>> 1:30 PM EDT, so thanks for the tips about this term so far (including
> > >>> older stuff from Barry Popik in the archives).

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