[Ads-l] Alligator dung 'crock of shit'

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 12:28 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> Took me a few minutes to decode this humorous euphemism. Couldn't catch the
> name of the fellow that CNN Don Lemon was chatting with at the end of his
> show. Probably a distinguished news anchor with HRT sympathies, prissily
> dissing DJT.
>

It was Texas native Dan Rather.

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1608/23/cnnt.01.html
RATHER: Well, listen, politically, he should have gone very quickly.
Politically. And for him to say by the way, I don't have to worry about
politics, I think everyone realizes he's joking about it.
Politically, from the president's standpoint, the case wait until the
things settle down a little bit. But you know what, in the long haul, this
doesn't matter. All this talk about should he have gone sooner, he go too
little, too late it's what your native Louisianans would call alligator
dung.
-----

And this wasn't the first time Rather attributed the expression to
Louisianans:

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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/dan-rather-on-roger-ailes-hes-a-master-of-propaganda-20110525
He knows that isn’t true. The record clearly shows there wasn't any trap to
be sprung. I know that this goes into urban myth – that they
counter-trapped us. All of that is what’s known in Louisiana as "alligator
dung."
-----

I'm not so sure W Brewer's euphemistic reading is really necessary here.

--bgz

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