[Ads-l] Eating food that has fallen onto the floor

[Wilson Gray]

> More commonly, perhaps, "a pound (or a peck) of DIRT before you die."

Where do you know this saying from, Charlie? TX, PA, GA, or someplace else?

On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 8:01 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> Re. eating "a pound of earth before you die":
>
>
> More commonly, perhaps, "a pound (or a peck) of DIRT before you die."
>
>
> --Charlie
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Monday, December 25, 2017 3:36 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Eating food that has fallen onto the floor
>
> That you can eat food that has fallen onto the floor, if you pick it up
> within some random number of seconds, seems to be a widespread "rule." Or
> not. I first heard it in Boston ca. 1996. My personal experience is that,
> in general, people eat food that's fallen onto floor or they don't, without
> saying anything about it
>
> IAC, during Christmas (Eve) dinner, this "rule" was applied, motivating me
> to note that, among black East Texans, people say that "a little grit is
> good for your craw." One of my sisters-in-law remarked that she had grown
> up [in NE PA] with the expression,
>
> "You'll eat a pound of earth before you die."
>
> That's a new one on me.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org