And in Red Sky at Morning, by Richard Bradford. First published in 1968, but set during WWII, when the phrase was probably in more common use.
How about “catlicker”?
I believe it’s also used in Stephen King’s Needful Things. Interestingly set in northern New England where Richard Hooker went to school and used as the origin for his characters in MASH. Maybe it’s more widely used in those parts.
Led Zeppelin? 
Actually, she came back with crabs.
Thanks.
Wait… the SDMB doesn’t have some kind of rule against “hate speech” does it?
I hate the hell out of that.
OK…I’ll play along, why isn’t a Catholic slur hate speech then?
What definition of “hate speech” are you operating under?
The “hate speech” policy is defined in the BBQ Pit rules:
In my personal opinion, as someone from a Catholic background, “mackerel snapper,” while derogatory, is not nearly offensive enough to qualify as hate speech. Depending on context, it could be moderated as an insult/religious jab.
For some reason this thread reminds me of the kerfuffle over Liberal’s use of the term “hand stabber”.
Look, I am a white guy. About as white as it gets (except perhaps that 1/16th part Cherokee… but let’s not get into that).
I don’t care if you call me a ‘honkie’ or a ‘cracker’, or gosh… what other things … I forget
let me check…
A wonderful compendium of racial slurs
WAIT is ‘redneck’ really a racial pejorative?
Ahabs?
Boguns?
Buleh?
Ditchpig?
These are nonsensical.
And, I’ll bet you none of you have ever heard these used as pejorative terms used for white people.
Words have meaning. Words have power. It is the primary way we interact with each other.
But, when we assign negative values to certain words, we do damage to those we apply them to.
This happens because we are attempting to harm them with the words.
It isn’t the word; it is instead the wielder of the word.
So, the word ‘mackerel snapper’ if used meanly means JUST as much as when someone calls someone else ‘nigger’.
It is not as if some magic spell was cast with the use of the word.
It matters to the person it is said to.
Think, y’all. I am a middle-aged white guy.
I am walking down the street and a young black kid (8-9-10) says “Hey, nigger, love those shoes”.
Do I dress him down for using a bad word?
Heck no.
I tell him where I bought the shoes.
This actually happened a few days ago.
And they are pretty cool shoes.
There is only ONE human race here.
The HUMAN race.
This is the danged 21st century.
We should and can be beyond this.
The first thing I think when I meet a new person is “wow, a new person, I wonder what we can share”.
The second thing is “how can I help them.”
I usually can’t, but that is how I am wired.
Y’all probably think I am freaking crazy.
But, honestly, I love humans. I am a human, after all.
Thanks for reading.
Well, for one thing, the phrase is so outdated that the only people whom I have heard use it in the last 40 years have been Catholics making fun of the slur, for example.
“Papists” is still cool, though, right?
Well, yeah, yer maybe just a bit crazy, but if you were otherwise, you’d be boring.
I’m reading an old (1939) Nero Wolfe mystery, “Some Buried Caesar” (the one in which Archie meets Lily Rowan), and he tells her a joke that begins “What’s the difference between a Catholic and a river that runs uphill?”.
We never get the punch line, and I’ve just gotta know.
Here I was thinking it had something to do with Lesbians.
There apparently isn’t any punch line.
Regards,
Shodan
None… I don’t care who hates me, people like me, George Bush or Barack Obama.
Thank you for clearing that up. Now it won’t keep me awake at night.