[Ads-l] "Talk like a man with a paper ass"

[Wilson Gray]

> those nuts who thought they were Napoleon.

Nice insight! I recall that paper-hatted "Napoleons" were once an
annoyingly-common, comic motif in funny-books in the '40's and '50's. "You
sound/talk like a man with a paper hat on" has a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, I
don't know what, WRT "You sound/talk like a man with a paper asshole."

On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 10:31 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I found a post-WWII newspaper ex. of "talk like a man with a paper hat."
> Because it's late, and very possibly a euphemism, it isn't worth much.
>
> But it makes me wonder. A "man with a paper hat" in the late 19th century
> might be one of those nuts who thought they were Napoleon.
>
> At least that's my SWAG.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 4:54 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > When I was in the War, 1959-1962, the expression was,
> >
> > "... sound/talk like a man with a paper _asshole_."
> >
> > Hadn't heard it before. Haven't heard it since. I found the use of the
> > phrase to be so vague that I was never able to understand what it was
> > supposed to mean. (I apologize for commenting like a man with a paper
> > asshole.)
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 26, 2020 at 1:54 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > 'To talk nonsense.'  Common in WW2.
> > >
> > > These seem to be the earliest traces:
> > >
> > > 1895 *St. Louis-Post Dispatch* of (Nov. 15)  3: “Naw, I weren’t born in
> > dis
> > > here place….You talk like a man wid a paper nose.”
> > >
> > > 1906 P*rovidence Evening Bulletin (*March 23) 3:“You talk like a man
> > with a
> > > paper knee.”
> > >
> > > Not that these make any more sense.  Nor does the common form
> > "...asshole."
> > >
> > >
> > > JL
> > > --
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
-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

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