"You got a mouse (etc.) in your pocket?"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

I can't find anything about this expression in the usual references.
Here's an example from the article "A Mouse in the Pocket" by Curt
Johnson (1966), _College Composition and Communication_ 17(5):222-224:

---
Instructor: "Today we will examine Eliot's relation to the
Symbolists." Student: "We? You got a mouse in your pocket?"
---

Urban Dictionary has "mouse in your pocket":

---
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mouse%20in%20your%20pocket
Similar to "the royal we" but less condescending. Usually a retort
when someone volunteers you to do something without asking you first.
---

...as well as "turd in your pocket":

---
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=turd%20in%20your%20pocket
When someone tries to include you in a "we" that you don't feel part
of, the traditional response is "We? What do you mean, we? Do you have
a turd in your pocket?" Translates as semi-funny emphatic rejection of
false or forced collectivism. (My "do you have a mouse in your
pocket?" is the cleaned-up version of the old rhetorical rejection of
the false "we.")
---

Other variants include "rat" and "frog". It's also possible to inquire
about a "mouse in your purse."

Any insight into the age and regional distribution of the expression?
And is "mouse" really a euphemism for "turd", as the Urbandictionary
contributor claims?


--Ben Zimmer

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