BS: American rough..?

Subject: BS: American rough..?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 May 12 - 01:50 AM

In England we have a saying, about certain people places and people - we say they are 'rough as a badger's arsehole'.

This means the place has more than its fair share of earthy citizens.(the saying floated into my mind, when I was thinking about the town of Warrington where they have just nicked a bronze memorial - I once did a gig there, and whilst I am sure Warrington has many delightful and cultured people living there - the landlord of the pub that I played at - well, the saying fitted him like a glove.)

Or with people - it might mean, they are uncouth, and consequently not terribly attractive.

I wondered if there is an American equivalent saying.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 May 12 - 04:10 AM

What do badgers say?

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:18 AM

An uncle of mine used "rough as a cob" which, I guess, comes from the texture of dried corncobs used in outhouses. But he used it to refer to rough water or rough weather, not rough character.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:46 AM

"Cold as a witch's tit" comes to mind, as an old expression from growing up on the Maine coast.

"Pissed as a newt" was another one that I never ran across anywhere else.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 22 May 12 - 09:05 AM

Pissed as a newt is a saying I've often heard in the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 May 12 - 01:53 PM

Too dumb to pour piss out of a boot with the directions on the heel.

So bad Hell won't take him because he'd take over.

Too dumb to pour sand down a rat hole.

Couldn't find his butt with both hands, a flashlight, a map, and a mission statement.

Stinks bad enough to drive a buzzard off a gut wagon.

He'd steal his mother's pension.

Crookeder than a dog's hind leg.

Mean enough to kick a new-born puppy.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 May 12 - 02:54 PM

Seems to me the subject has segued into a different category from 'uncouth' or unattractive. What do we Americans use for people of that nature?

country cousin
uncultured
fashion trainwreck
Jethro - from Beverly Hillbillies
ugly as the south end of a mule heading north

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 May 12 - 03:42 PM

The compilation _Texas Crude_, by the former Fug Ken Weaver, yields:
Harder than the hubs of hell
Rough as a cob [i.e., in lieu of toilet paper]
Slick as two eels fucking in a bucket of snot
Strong enough to stick his finger up his ass and hold himself out at arm's length
Ugly as Death backing out of a shithouse

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 May 12 - 05:00 PM

so did they wash the cob, and use it again, or was it disposed of - after use?

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 May 12 - 06:32 PM

The farmers I've talked to told me that they never used 'em at all. They would just leave some in the outhouse and see what the city slickers did. Mostly they used pages from mail order catalogs, pieces of old newspaper or just paper, a piece of old rag, or leaves. (If you play with the catalog pages or pieces of newspaper while sittin' you can get them nice and soft, or at least somewhat pliable.)

By the way, these farmers were in several different regions of the US.

Dry cobs WERE burnt in winter to help extend the wood/coal supply.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:28 PM

"So honest he'll owe you for the rest of his life 'fore he'll cheat ya out of it."

(An uncle about a neighbor, in a conversation about returning things you've borrowed.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Bobert
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:47 PM

"Rough as a night in jail"...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: gnu
Date: 22 May 12 - 09:37 PM

Other side of the coin... by me... that lad is so tough ya could drive him into solid ground with a rock.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Janie
Date: 22 May 12 - 11:37 PM

I'm not sure there is an equivalent phrase, Al. Uncouth is not automatically regarded as unattractive in the USA, though it may be.

"Rough as a corn cob" is the phrase that also came to mind for me, as it did for BWL. While a phrase that can be used to be derogatory, it is usually more descriptive than judgemental. It might imply rough manners or outspokenness, or a lack of "couth," but often also conveys some quality of admiration, such as "speaking one's mind" even if without lack of finesse. While not a classless society by any means, my impression is our American society is less class conscious, and somewhat less likely to make negative judgements about a person's worth,or to guage them "unattractive" based on their social finesse or couthness than may be the case in the UK. "Roughness" may even been deemed something of a virtue.

Context, of course, is everything, and I don't have enough knowledge or experience to place your description in context.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 May 12 - 07:53 AM

Yes I can see Janie - a difficult concept to convey.

We tend to think of spikey whisky and wine as being uncouth or rough.

We might take a draught, and say, by gum! - that was rough as a badger's arse...! (before pouring ourselves another!)

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 May 12 - 07:59 AM

In England , there all sorts of jokes about how rough and uncouth the northerners are.

Not necessarilly - looked on as a bad thing. Its a bit tongue in cheek humour - similar to the humour about Southern USA people in Randy Newman songs - Birmingham, and Rednecks.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Becca72
Date: 23 May 12 - 09:47 AM

Nothing comes to mind as far as phrases for "rough" or "uncouth"
but for unattractive around here we have "fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down"

Or for something disgusting my mother always said "bad enough to gag a maggot"

Or for mean "tough as a $2 steak"

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 23 May 12 - 02:22 PM

My Mamma's favorite is "Bass Akckward" for crude, unmannerly and / or stupid people.

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Allan C.
Date: 24 May 12 - 06:19 AM

Yep. The difficulty is that in America we tend to be rather specific about which particular aspect of character or appearance we want to attack: how trustworthy, useful, ugly, foolish, stupid, etc..

You couldn't trust him to hold his mother's purse.
He is as useful as tits on a boar hog.
She is as foolish as the day is long.
He is as dumb as a bucket of rocks.
Etc..

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: ranger1
Date: 24 May 12 - 06:32 AM

Some of my dad's favorites for stupid were:
Number than a pounded thumb
Doesn't know his ass from his elbow
Doesn't know beans from a hole in the ground

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Becca72
Date: 24 May 12 - 10:16 AM

Numb as a hake (which apparently is a very stupid fish)

Doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass

Someone with buck teeth is said to be able to "pick peas through a picket fence"

The one I don't understand is used to describe someone who is either angry or high strung "Wound up tighter than Zip's ass". Wha?

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 May 12 - 02:00 PM

Examples of Nothern Rough - Uncouth


The neighbouring northern counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire have always been rivals. The famous Yorkshire cricketer, Freddie Truman used to say - 'definition of a gentleman in Yorkshire is someone who gets out the bath to have a wee. Mind you, in Lancashire - they don't even get out of the bath to have a shit.

Story Two

A southerner is having a drink in a northern pub. from the next room he hears a noise, someone shouthing and a thumping sound.....

223 thump! (cheers)
506 thump! (loud cheers)
124 thump! (shouts of dismay and disgust)

The southerner says wht's going on in there?
Thy're playin' darts lad!
That's not how you score darts...
Aye! But this Yorkshire lad! They're playin with live hedgehogs!

Story Three

A southerner is at a Sheffield Wednesday Football match. It starts raining, and suddenly all the people in the stadium take their flat caps off.

Why have we all taken our caps off? asks the southerner.
Well you don't want to to be wearing a wet cap all night, do you?

Subject: RE: BS: American rough..?
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 May 12 - 08:22 PM

One might also (obSongs) recall the logger who

never shaved the whiskers
from off of his horny hide.
He just drove them in with a hammer
and bit them off inside.