"_No holes barred_, straight talk." [NT]

[Jonathan Lighter]

It means, you know, escape holes like at the ends of a big carton, if
somebody's trying to keep you in it. If they don't put bars over the holes,
you can get out anytime you want. So anything goes. And anybody.

It like stands to reason.

JL

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 9:19 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "_No holes barred_, straight talk." [NT]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 11/21/12 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> > I'm not sure.  I confess that until recently I thought it was "no holes
> barred", until I was disabused of this by incredulous relatives.  And I
> even used to watch wrestling on TV, so I have no excuse.
> >
> > LH
> And the relations get to lord it about that a *Yale* *linguistics*
> *professor* made such an error. Tsk! Bonus for them! (We language geeks
> get 0 slack from friends and relations . . . )
>
> ---Amy West
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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