"Stop digging."

[Victor Steinbok]

  It does not sound like "intermediate"--more likely euphemistic, as
PBDN was a "polite" paper.

     VS-)

On 10/11/2010 7:07 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> Thanks for the additional background Jon. YBQ contains a citation for
> the phrase "Don't make waves" in the Washington Post on January 6,
> 1941. It also says that the scatological joke is attested as early as
> 1925 and the saying might be derived from the joke.
>
> Here is a version of "don't make waves" in 1939 that might considered
> intermediate between the joke and the unadorned saying, or it might be
> independent of the joke.
>
> 1939 February 2, Palm Beach Daily News, Senator's Demand Showdown On
> President's Secret Deals With France and England, Page 1, Column 2,
> Palm Beach, Florida. (Google News Archive)
>
> Here's a little thing we learned that the boys over there might use.
> When you're in trouble up to your neck don't make waves.

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