[Ads-l] Quaint saying

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

A version with the phrase "shoot it up the chimney" was employed by
bestselling author Elmore Leonard according to a match in Google Books
snippet view. The GB date was 1993 but Worldcat shows editions were
also published in 1977. Of course, the 1977 text may have been
revised.

Year: 1993 (Copyright 1977)
Book Title: Unknown Man No. 89
Author: Elmore Leonard
Database: Google Books snippet view; data may be inaccurate; please
check on paper

[Begin extracted text]
"How deep was it?" Ryan said.
"It was so deep outside you had to shit in a shotgun and shoot it up
the chimney."
"That's pretty deep," Ryan said.
[End extracted text]

Google displayed the following alternative phrasings and minced variants:

[Begin selected Google matches]
crap in a shotgun and shoot it out the chimney
sh!t in a shotgun barrel and shoot it out the chimney
sh!t in a shotgun and shoot it out the chimney
s--t in a shotgun and shoot it out the chimney
shit in a shotgun and shoot it out the chimney.
sh at t in a shotgun & shoot it out the chimney.
poop in the shotgun and shoot it out the chimney
poop in the shotgun barrel and shoot it out the chimney.
hocky in a shotgun and shoot it out the chimney!

shit in a shotgun and shoot it up the chimney
shit in the shotgun and shoot it up the chimney
$H&t in the shotgun and shoot it up the chimney!
[End matches]


On Sun, Mar 22, 2015 at 3:35 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Quaint saying
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> On Mar 22, 2015, at 2:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
> wrote:
>>=20
>> In 1975 a female graduate student from Knoxville described snow as =
> being
>>=20
>> "so deep we had to shit in a shotgun and shoot it out the chimney."
>>=20
>> Bizarre. But more bizarre is that I now find precisely the same
>> phrase in a student collection of Georgia folklore.
>>=20
>> Google  for MSS. 1003.02.09.pdf, and scroll to p. 11.
>>=20
>> Unfortunately I see no indication of a date.
>>=20
>>=20
> Three google hits including this one that gives a fuller explanation of =
> the reasoning involved:
>
> "It snowed so hard where I live, we couldn't make it to the outhouse, =
> the water in the toilet inside the house froze, and we had to shit in a =
> shotgun and shoot it out the chimney."
> http://uberhumor.com/just-a-little-snow-storm-in-my-city
>
> And of course this is just one more powerful argument for the NRA:  just =
> think of all those poor Bostonians who don't have shotguns because of =
> those commie (or is it Nazi?) gun control laws in Massachusetts. =20
>
> LH
>
>>=20
>> --=20
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the =
> truth."
>>=20
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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