Mark Twain's profanity

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

My play-writing friend wishes to thank those on the ADS-L who responded to her relayed request for information about Mark Twain's profanity.  She has found those comments quite helpful.

Other comments:

Re: "in the X":  you seem to have overlooked the common expressions "in deep shit" and what appears to be its euphemized version "in deep kimche".  I do not recall any other synonyms besides kimche.  Probably not important, but I first recall hearing "in deep kimche" in the late 1970's from a retired military warrant officer who had served at least one tour in Korea and had at one time been a mess sergeant.
   Then there was the coworker of mine, originally from West Virginia, who said of a supervisor "he's a lost ball in tall grass".

a new metaphor:  in the "Delaware Valley" (a term that sometimes is extended to include Atlantic City) there is considerable public attention directed to environmental consequences of drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale.  One blogger (Sandy Bauer of the Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/greenspace, in the Inquirer March 16, 2011, page A3) had this to say:

   "Is natural gas drilling the elephant in the room...?  Or the gorilla?  Speakers put both terms in play last week at a river-basin forum...
   "Everyone in the [Delaware River] basin has a straw in the river, from the thermoelectric plants that use massive quantitities [of water]...to the little kid who wants a sip of water and a bath."

     - Jim Landau



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