Blowing Smoke Up My Ass

[John O'Flaherty]

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 07:09:43 -0700, Jason Racine <jracine@nospam>
wrote:

>I'm thinking it means being evasive, or disingenuous. Does anyone know
>where this strange phrase originated?

I don't know, but it sounds remarkably similar to 'blowing smoke out
of your ass', which means the same thing.

--
john

[Donna Richoux]

Jason Racine <jracine@nospam> wrote:

> I'm thinking it means being evasive, or disingenuous. Does anyone know
> where this strange phrase originated?

Cassell's Dictionary of Slang says that "to blow smoke" has meant "to
confuse, to mystify through speech," since the mid-19th century. They
consider "to blow smoke up someone's ass," recorded since the 1950s, to
be an intensification of that. They define it as "to confuse, to tell
lies."

--
Best wishes -- Donna Richoux

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 07:09:43 -0700, the renowned Jason Racine
<jracine@nospam> wrote:

>I'm thinking it means being evasive, or disingenuous. Does anyone know
>where this strange phrase originated?

There's a strange claim here:
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/12/messages/939.html

It references a book that documents the use of bellows-driven
tobacco-smoke enemas in Europe.

"A brave German doctor administers an enema of tobacco smoke to a
corpse in this curious late eighteenth-century plate. From the
author's collection." Must be an interesting "collection".

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
sp...@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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[M. J. Powell]

In message <1g51f4q.2oeq32bzwca0N%tr...@euronet.nl>, Donna Richoux
<tr...@euronet.nl> writes

Cf: Camouflage?

Mike
--
M.J.Powell