"That Takes The Rag Right Off the Bush"
D. Spencer Hines
Brits first.
Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
--
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin,
President Royal Society [c.1895]
John Flynn
> What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
>
> Brits first.
>
> Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
My interpretation? Okay...
To be the first to seize upon the correct, most salient, or most
appropriate idea or stance.
I haven't a clue where it comes from, though -- it's one of things
one hears and deduces from context without really thinking about its
origin until someone questions it.
--
johnF
"The small, frenziedly eager, hyperactive, lonely, fuzzball, brown,
cocker spaniel, thumping his tail on the parquet floor and dripping
saliva from the corners of his mouth, with tongue lolling -- Lieblich
-- has screwed the pooch again." D. Spencer Hines, 28/2/2000.
Red Valerian
wrote:
>What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
>
>Brits first.
>
>Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
I did a search using Altavista under Rag Off the Bush (assuming that I
could safely eliminate the word 'right') This threw up many
references including the following definition from a Dictionary of
Contemporary Slang:
1. takes the rag off the bush: the straw that broke the camel's back,
or the unbelievable thing that just tops all else. (Larry froze his
tongue to the freezer again? Damn that takes the rag off the bush.)
Some other listings were:
2. Lil' Abner Song List
Act One
It's A Typical Day
If I Had My Druthers
Jubilation T. Cornpone
Rag Off The Bush
Namely You
Unnecessary Town
What's Good For General Bullmoose
The Country's In The Very Best Of Hands
Sadie Hawkin's Day
3. One aspect of Texas culture I really enjoy are them there "sayin's"
-- you know what I'm talkin' about -- those phrases that Grandma used
to say that made no sense whatsoever to someone from NewYorkCIITEEEE,
but were universally understood in Texas talk. Phrases like:
"Well, hang my pitchur!"
"If that don't take the rag off the bush!"
"He's as nervous as a long-tailed cat at a rockin' chair convention!"
(now, THAT'S nervous!!)
4. What really jerks the rag off the bush, is there is now a group of
"environmentalists" close to the pending site who are yammering about
manatees and other bay life being "exposed to excess salt levels in
the return water". My Gawd!!! Then demand a BUILDING MORATORIUM like
they should have done long before now!
etc etc etc
Red
Alex Chernavsky
>"He's as nervous as a long-tailed cat at
>a rockin' chair convention!"
Reminds me of a particular favorite of mine: "He was as frustrated as a
one-legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen pond".
--
Alex Chernavsky
al...@astrocyte-design.com
P&D Schultz
>
> What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
>
> Brits first.
>
> Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
Since the phrase is an Americanism, are you trying to see if the Brits
guess correctly?
//P. Schultz
John
(James Follett) wrote:
>On Tue, 29 Feb 2000 20:24:48 GMT, in article
> <kWVu4.2061$aH.1...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
> NoS...@apa.edu "D. Spencer Hines" wrote:
>
>>What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
>>
>>Brits first.
>>
>>Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
>
>Red Val has given an answer but I've never come across the saying
>in the UK -- not even on Methodist camping trips.
If Red Val's answers are really the ones you were looking for I'm very
disappointed. I was thinking something doubly scatological.
--
Regards,
John
"The small, frenziedly eager, hyperactive, lonely,
fuzzball, brown, cocker spaniel, thumping his tail on the parquet
floor and dripping saliva from the corners of his mouth, with tongue
lolling --Lieblich -- has screwed the pooch again." D. Spencer Hines.
James Follett
<kWVu4.2061$aH.1...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
NoS...@apa.edu "D. Spencer Hines" wrote:
>What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
>
>Brits first.
>
>Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
Red Val has given an answer but I've never come across the saying
in the UK -- not even on Methodist camping trips.
--
James Follett. "The small, frenziedly eager, hyperactive, lonely,
D. Spencer Hines
But what about the Origin of the phrase?
--
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin,
President Royal Society [c.1895]
"John" <jbg...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:tXm8OEf6gGdKVNfLjxeMeyo=Te...@4ax.com...
| On Wed, 01 Mar 2000 01:01:44 +0000 (GMT), ja...@marage.demon.co.uk
| (James Follett) wrote:
|
| >On Tue, 29 Feb 2000 20:24:48 GMT, in article
| > <kWVu4.2061$aH.1...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
| > NoS...@apa.edu "D. Spencer Hines" wrote:
| >
| >>What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
| >>
| >>Brits first.
| >>
| >>Americans, wait your turn ---- colonial usurpers and johnny jumpups.
| >
| >Red Val has given an answer but I've never come across the saying
| >in the UK -- not even on Methodist camping trips.
|
| If Red Val's answers are really the ones you were looking for I'm very
| disappointed. I was thinking something doubly scatological.
| --
| Regards,
| John
| "The small, frenziedly eager, hyperactive, lonely,
| fuzzball, brown, cocker spaniel, thumping his tail on the parquet
| floor and dripping saliva from the corners of his mouth, with tongue
| lolling --Lieblich -- has screwed the pooch again." D. Spencer Hines.
|
|
|
Red Valerian
wrote:
>Red Val has done good work. He's on target ---- to a degree.
>
>But what about the Origin of the phrase?
Make that 'she's done good work' please, although I do understand the
mistake.
It sometimes fees like I've wandered into a boys' club when I post
here. Not the sort of boys' club you get in London with green leather
Chesterfields and leather-bound books. More the sort that meets in a
tree house in someone's back yard with a little sign on the door
saying, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED."
Red
paul draper
news:9Y%u4.3607$Ns2.2...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Red Val has done good work. He's on target ---- to a degree.
>
> But what about the Origin of the phrase?
Equivalent to finding out there's no toilet paper?
--
Paul Draper
0171 369 2754
Donna Richoux
> If Red Val's answers are really the ones you were looking for I'm very
> disappointed. I was thinking something doubly scatological.
Sigh. The modern dirty mind. Bad Words Drive Out Good. Here we go round
the mulberry bush.
Rags, before the modern era of Handi-Wipes and thrift shops and weekly
trash pickups, were common household items. You turned your old clothes
into rags, and used them for a hundred and one purposes. You washed
everything using them, including yourself and dishes. You (or your
granny) braided them into rugs. You turned clean rags into bandages. You
dusted with rags. You wrapped things up in rags. Poor people wore their
clothes until they appeared to be, and were called, rags. (Now everyone
can afford T-shirts and jeans.) There was a verb, to rag (to tease) and
rag(ged)-time music.
And this is just what I can say off the top of my head, without looking
up what the really obscure and obsolete meanings of rag were. And
without dragging in the single former use of rags that modern men are
apparently aware of, that of menstrual pads.
Does no one else still turn old clothes and towels into rags? The
experience of snipping and ripping is most satisfying. Squares of old
towel make excellent cleaning cloths.
As for bush, a bush is still a common object: a shrub. You probably see
them every day. A bird in the hand is worth....
Has the time limit for actual scholarship passed and may I now put my
purely speculative (but sensible) theory forward for the rag on the
bush?
--
Best wishes --- Donna Richoux
John
wrote:
Oh, well - if that's the context then ...
When we get done rinsing out the rags we've used for dusting, cleaning
windows and wiping up floors, we spread them on the barberry bush by
the back door. The rags dry out very quickly there and are ready for
reuse.
Periodically we must collect the rags in order to partake of the
aesthetic beauty of the foliage and berries on the bush. Also,
removing the rags is necessary if one ever wants to get a bird *into*
the bush in the first place.
Thus we use the expression, "that gets the rag off the bush", to mean
uncovering an inner beauty or to mean making a bird more comfortable.
But that's only valid in our neighborhood.
Regards,
John
Jody Bilyeu
> What do the Gentle Readers think it means?
One hangs rags in various bushes (lots of times a hawthorn tree) out
of superstition, in a ritual that may or may not be an ancestor of the
Christmas tree. Used to, in the olde countree, rags in the bush were
an offering to a nature god designed to protect you from harm and
assure your prosperity--later it was just another general hedge
against calamity, like tossing salt over your shoulder.
"Don't that break the mirror?" could have emerged, but didn't.
That interpretation lends a bad connotation to taking the rag off the
bush, though I think some people believed that if a rag disappeared
mysteriously from your magic bush, that was a good thing--originally
because that meant your offering had been accepted.
Rags did have some value, so the ritual as offering could have had a
real-life shaman in the rag-pickers, surreptitiously deriving good
from the superstitiously-placed rags, and in return chocking up jewels
in the crowns of rag-placers.
I just looked up "rag" in the OED and "rag-bush" is listed as a
special combination form, in its superstitious sense.
Another superstition from these parts regarding rags: If you drop
your dishrag, that means a slut is coming to visit, which if you were
a housewife, was either an omen of approaching danger to domestic
harmony, or a funny-ha-ha way to tell which of your friends were
sluts.
Just goes to show--people need myth, and find it in whatever's handy.
Cheers,
Jody
vellov
>It sometimes fees like I've wandered into a boys' club when I post
>here. Not the sort of boys' club you get in London with green leather
>Chesterfields and leather-bound books. More the sort that meets in a
>tree house in someone's back yard with a little sign on the door
>saying, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED."
Ever go to the Cheshire Cheese, Dr. J's favourite pub, just off Fleet St.?
There's a sign above the entrance to the bar saying something like 'Ladies
Not Admitted To This Room'. I noticed it last night, and I filed the
information away, wondering who would appreciate it. Perhaps you'd like to
propose it as the venue for aeu social gatherings?
With respect,
vellov
In case you were wondering, the rule is no longer enforced. v.
D. Spencer Hines
The floor is yours. Cut a rug.
--
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin,
President Royal Society [c.1895]
"Donna Richoux" <tr...@euronet.nl> wrote in message
news:1e6tivl.jb4qrvdocjwgN%tr...@euronet.nl...
Matti Lamprhey
> them every day. A bird in the hand is worth....
I would have thought a bush was an ideal rag-drying device, in fact.
Matti
M.J.Powell
<tr...@euronet.nl> writes
>John <jbg...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> If Red Val's answers are really the ones you were looking for I'm very
>> disappointed. I was thinking something doubly scatological.
>
>Sigh. The modern dirty mind. Bad Words Drive Out Good. Here we go round
>the mulberry bush.
>
>Rags, before the modern era of Handi-Wipes and thrift shops and weekly
>trash pickups, were common household items. You turned your old clothes
>into rags, and used them for a hundred and one purposes. You washed
>everything using them, including yourself and dishes. You (or your
>granny) braided them into rugs. You turned clean rags into bandages. You
>dusted with rags. You wrapped things up in rags. Poor people wore their
>clothes until they appeared to be, and were called, rags. (Now everyone
>can afford T-shirts and jeans.) There was a verb, to rag (to tease) and
>rag(ged)-time music.
>
>And this is just what I can say off the top of my head, without looking
>up what the really obscure and obsolete meanings of rag were. And
>without dragging in the single former use of rags that modern men are
>apparently aware of, that of menstrual pads.
>
>Does no one else still turn old clothes and towels into rags? The
>experience of snipping and ripping is most satisfying. Squares of old
>towel make excellent cleaning cloths.
My sister does. With my clothes before I have rejected them.
Mike
--
M.J.Powell
Stephen Toogood
<hg...@dial.pipex.com> writes
>On Wed, 01 Mar 2000 03:16:21 GMT, "D. Spencer Hines" <NoS...@apa.edu>
>wrote:
>
>>Red Val has done good work. He's on target ---- to a degree.
>>
>>But what about the Origin of the phrase?
>
>mistake.
>
>here. Not the sort of boys' club you get in London with green leather
>Chesterfields and leather-bound books. More the sort that meets in a
>tree house in someone's back yard with a little sign on the door
>saying, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED."
>
we have a minority of females, but we have an awful lot of old women.
And some little boys.
--
Stephen Toogood. "The small, frenziedly eager, hyperactive, lonely,
Gulley Bull
Red Valerian <hg...@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Mar 2000 03:16:21 GMT, "D. Spencer Hines" <NoS...@apa.edu>
> wrote:
>
> >Red Val has done good work. He's on target ---- to a degree.
> >
> >But what about the Origin of the phrase?
>
> Make that 'she's done good work' please, although I do understand the
> mistake.
>
> It sometimes fees like I've wandered into a boys' club when I post
> here. Not the sort of boys' club you get in London with green leather
> Chesterfields and leather-bound books. More the sort that meets in a
> tree house in someone's back yard with a little sign on the door
> saying, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED."
Don't worry about it Red. When you've grown up a bit the sign won't apply,
and you'll be able to join all the women on this NG.
--
Gulley Bull t...@freeuk.com
D. Spencer Hines
origin?
There may be differences between American and British origins ---- i.e.,
if the expression is known in the U.K.
--
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin,
President Royal Society [c.1895]
"Gulley Bull" <gulle...@here.com> wrote in message
news:1a17a59...@freeuk.com...
Gulley Bull
> t...@freeuk.com...>
>
> | > 1) In message <qndpbsccrfve0815t...@4ax.com> Red Valerian
> | > <hg...@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
[reformat]
> On Wed, 01 Mar 2000 03:16:21 GMT, "D. Spencer Hines" NoS...@apa.edu>
> wrote: this
> Red Val has done good work. He's on target ---- to a degree.
>
> But what about the Origin of the phrase?
> | > 1) Red Valerian wrote
> | > Make that 'she's done good work' please, although I do understand
> | > the mistake.
> | >
> | > It sometimes fees like I've wandered into a boys' club when I post
> | > here. Not the sort of boys' club you get in London with green leather
> | > Chesterfields and leather-bound books. More the sort that meets in a
> | > tree house in someone's back yard with a little sign on the door
> | > saying, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED."
>> 2) Gulley Bull wrote
>> Don't worry about it Red. When you've grown up a bit the sign won't apply,
>> and you'll be able to join all the women on this NG.
> 3) D. Spencer Hines wrote
> So, will Nurse Ratched call us all together in the ward and reveal the
> origin?
Nah! You'll have to summon Mary the geometrician. However you may have to
assist with Mary's mensuration.
--
Gulley Bull t...@freeuk.com
Red Valerian
>How nice to have you back again Red. I see what you mean. It may be that
>we have a minority of females, but we have an awful lot of old women.
>
>And some little boys.
LOL. I'd send you a high five for this but it might damage the
monitor, so I'll blow you a kiss instead. Gulley Bull can have the
raspberry.
Red
Charles Riggs
wrote:
>Does no one else still turn old clothes and towels into rags? The
>experience of snipping and ripping is most satisfying. Squares of old
>towel make excellent cleaning cloths.
I find that an old tee-shirt makes an excellent polishing cloth and
shoe-buffing cloth.
Charles Riggs
Ray Heindl
<38bd4...@news.netdirect.net.uk>:
As long as there are no convenient perching spots for birds above your
rags....
--
Ray Heindl
Gulley Bull
> > Stephen Toogood wrote
> >How nice to have you back again Red. I see what you mean. It may be that
> >we have a minority of females, but we have an awful lot of old women.
> >
> >And some little boys.
In message <cd4sbs44i0uhjs01l...@4ax.com>
Red Valerian <hg...@dial.pipex.com>
wrote:
> LOL. I'd send you a high five for this but it might damage the
> monitor, so I'll blow you a kiss instead. Gulley Bull can have the
> raspberry.
It seems a pity that you can delight in sexism, if it comes gift wrapped in
ageism.
Quote
'It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.'
Adlai Stevenson.
End quote.
> Gulley Bull can have the raspberry.
It is no good you getting fruity with me Red, you're just not my type.
It's disappointing I know, but unfortunately that's life.
--
Gulley Bull t...@freeuk.com
D. Spencer Hines
Just a hunch.
--
D. Spencer Hines
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
"When you have to shoot, shoot -- don't talk." Eli Wallach as Tuco
Ramirez in "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" -- Sergio Leone [1966]
Lindsay Endell
>
> It sometimes fees like I've wandered into a boys' club when I post
> here. Not the sort of boys' club you get in London with green leather
> Chesterfields and leather-bound books. More the sort that meets in a
> tree house in someone's back yard with a little sign on the door
> saying, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED."
In aue or aeu? Because in the, um, three years I've been posting ton
aue I've never felt like it's a boys' club.
Linz
--
New! Improved! http://www.gofar.demon.co.uk/
Lindsay Endell
> In article <1e6tivl.jb4qrvdocjwgN%tr...@euronet.nl>, Donna Richoux
> <tr...@euronet.nl> writes
> >
> >Does no one else still turn old clothes and towels into rags? The
> >experience of snipping and ripping is most satisfying. Squares of old
> >towel make excellent cleaning cloths.
>
> My sister does. With my clothes before I have rejected them.
Possibly because by the time you reject them they wouldn't be worth
using as rags? One of Matt's favourite shirts had practically turned
itself into a set of handy dusters without assistance before he agreed
not to wear it any more. He /couldn't/ wear it any more - every time
he tried to put an arm down a sleeve he went through a torn seam
instead.
It's done sterling service cleaning up the paint in the bathroom,
mind.
M.J.Powell
<go...@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>M.J.Powell wrote:
>
>> In article <1e6tivl.jb4qrvdocjwgN%tr...@euronet.nl>, Donna Richoux
>> <tr...@euronet.nl> writes
>> >
>> >Does no one else still turn old clothes and towels into rags? The
>> >experience of snipping and ripping is most satisfying. Squares of old
>> >towel make excellent cleaning cloths.
>>
>> My sister does. With my clothes before I have rejected them.
>
>Possibly because by the time you reject them they wouldn't be worth
>using as rags?
You may be right here.
>One of Matt's favourite shirts had practically turned
>itself into a set of handy dusters without assistance before he agreed
>not to wear it any more. He /couldn't/ wear it any more - every time
>he tried to put an arm down a sleeve he went through a torn seam
>instead.
Just like my pyjamas.
Mike
--
M.J.Powell
Stephen Toogood
<go...@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>M.J.Powell wrote:
>
>> In article <1e6tivl.jb4qrvdocjwgN%tr...@euronet.nl>, Donna Richoux
>> <tr...@euronet.nl> writes
>> >
>> >Does no one else still turn old clothes and towels into rags? The
>> >experience of snipping and ripping is most satisfying. Squares of old
>> >towel make excellent cleaning cloths.
>>
>> My sister does. With my clothes before I have rejected them.
>
>Possibly because by the time you reject them they wouldn't be worth
>itself into a set of handy dusters without assistance before he agreed
Now a set of handy dusters-without-assistance is high on my wants list.
>not to wear it any more. He /couldn't/ wear it any more - every time
>he tried to put an arm down a sleeve he went through a torn seam
>instead.
>
>It's done sterling service cleaning up the paint in the bathroom,
>mind.
>
So you've been reading THAT newsgroup again have you? Still, what else
is there to do in the rain?
--
Stephen Toogood
Lindsay Endell
> In article <38c04d34...@news.demon.co.uk>, Lindsay Endell
> <go...@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>
> Now a set of handy dusters-without-assistance is high on my wants list.
Ah, now there you have a point.
> >It's done sterling service cleaning up the paint in the bathroom,
> >mind.
> >
> So you've been reading THAT newsgroup again have you? Still, what else
> is there to do in the rain?
Get wet. But that's a tad predictable, wouldn't you say?
jac...@gmail.com
> Jack Urban