Mark Twain's profanity

[William Palmer]

Classic euphemism, courtesy of Geo. H. W. Bush..."in deep doo-doo"

Bill Palmer

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 9:44 AM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> <
JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
>              <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Mark Twain's profanity
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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