# Obscure origins of popular phrases **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 11, 2006, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205 "2006-04-11T07:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205/21 "2006-04-11T20:56:17Z")
:smack: Sorry, **FlyingRamen**. I tried. I think someone hit the board with a stupid stick today. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205/22 "2006-04-11T21:09:39Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > :smack: > > Sorry, **FlyingRamen**. I tried. I think someone hit the board with a stupid stick today. Do you know the interesting origin of the phrase Stupid Stick? There was a school Marm in a small Rhode Island Village that instead of swatting kids on the butt or striking there wrist would hit them in the head. A Local Doctor was trying to figure out why so many kids in the village had learning problems. He backtracked it to this teacher and push for legislation banning the Stupid Stick. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205/23 "2006-04-11T21:12:30Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > :smack: > > Sorry, **FlyingRamen**. I tried. I think someone hit the board with a stupid stick today. The stupid stick is an actual artifact, and was used by Edmund I of England. Of course, then, it was called “An Stuypid Styk,” and was part of the religious instruction of the day. It meant the \*opposite \* of its current meaning, as it was meant to beat the stupidity _out_ of you. And don’t get me started on the true origin of “Ugly Stick” … ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205/24 "2006-04-11T22:23:12Z")
In ancient Israel cities had a huge wooden gate that closed at night. There was a much smaller door cut into the gate called “the eye of the needle”. It was next to impossible to get camels to go through it but even harder to get donkeys to because they would smell camels and be afraid plus they’re stubborn beasts to begin with. It often required the muledrivers to get behind the donkeys and push will all their strength, and then if the donkey moved it would cause the driver to fall into the animal. More than once a donkey driver pushed so hard that when the donkey moved his head went into the donkey’s rectal cavity, causing the donkey driver to be set upon and robbed since he couldn’t see what was going on around him and the city gate was bolted and thus nobody could get out. ## This led to the phrase “Get your head out of your ass.” ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205/25 "2006-04-12T05:57:24Z")
Jack McGraw was a dealer of farm supplies on a dirt road outside Xenia, Ohio in the late 19th century. Since he sometimes stopped in at crotchety old Ebenezer Grimes’s general store in town and talked shop, folks visiting the store would ask Ebenezer what Jack had in stock on a given day. But often Ebenezer was short of information, and one day when a customer asked about manure supply, the exasperated answer was “I don’t know Jack’s shit!” And the expression caught on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-origins-of-popular-phrases/352205.md?page=1)