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

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US)]

I recall from childhood (said in a sing-song rhythm)

God made dirt
So it won't hurt
So put it in your mouth
And let it work

> ----
> 
> 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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