I vaguely remember this phrase, attributed to Barry Goldwater(?), that “[something] went through [him? it?] like shit through a canebrake” and though the phrase is colorful, I have no idea what it means.
Wot is a canebrake? And why would shit flow through it copiously?
Did Goldwater actually utter this? If so, about whom or what was he speaking?
I don’t recall ever hearing that phrase before, although George C. Scott, as General Patton in the movie Patton in his opening monolgue talks about the US Army going through the Germans “like crap through a goose”, a phrase I can fully understand (and which Patton hjimself probably said – that openinf speech was abstracted from his.)
Apparently I have encountered the phrase before, but don’t recall it. A little googling turns up this example from Stephen King’s The Dead Zone
I still don’t know why this phrase is used, although it’s juxtaposed with the one about geese, which I do understand.
A canebrake is, according to Wikipedia:
I have no idea why this would be the basis for this weird verbal construction. Since it’s a wetland plant, maybe raw sewage floats through it easily
You’re not the first to ask about this:
Canebrake is another name for a eastern shoreline rattlesnake. Not sure about their bowel movement activities.
I have no idea what the significance is, but William McCullough used the title “Through the Canebrake” for a Civil War novel
“Canebrake” is apparently also short for “Canebrake rattlesnake”, presumably one that lives in canebrakes. Maybe it’s felt that excrement passes so easily through a canebrake rattlesnake that it’s as proverbial in that way as a goose.
Canebrake Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster.
I see that Si_Amigo published this while I was writing my own entry.
No reference to Goldwater?
Google tells me that “canebrake” also appears in Joyce’s Ulysses. No Goldwater there either.
You’re the one who brought Goldwater into this. If you want to tie him to the quote, you go search for it.
in the OP you don’t even seem to be sure that he used the phrase.
It’s where Tennessee Ernie Ford was raised by an ol’ mama lion. (According to the song “Sixteen Tons”.)
Good Lord, I found it.
Gore Vidal quoted Goldwater using the phrase with regard to Nixon:
The quote (from Vidal’s book) continues
From Gore Vidal’s An Evening with Richard Nixon p. 71 (1972)
Goldwater was, of course, the scion of one of Arizona’s leading pioneer-turned-fatcat families dating back to the Arizona Territory days.
Canebreak being a southeastern thing I find it odd a southwestern politician would use that phrase which is (was?) evidently pretty obscure. Stuff was a LOT more regional in the 1970s USA than it is today.
Yes. I’ve enjoyed that play and even own the book. Obviously haven’t read it in years.
When I searched Google, it gave me results but no “Goldwater.” I wonder what you did to get it to spit up the Vidal play.
I still have no idea what Goldwater was talking about.
From the Stephen King reference, I figured that going like shit through a canebreak referred to smashing through an obstacle without difficulty, a colorful southern phrase that need not be taken literally.
Yeah, but that doesn’t fit what Goldwater said, does it? In that context, it’s more like “wandered around without a plan.”
I looked in Google Books. That will often give you references you won’t find in straight Google.
Contextual WAG: Canebrake = cane = reed, pipe, straw, an unobstructed tube.
Trivia note, in case anyone doesn’t already know:
“Canaveral,” as in the cape is Spanish for “canebrake.”
“Canebrake” was also the name of a top secret military device in one episode of the original “Hawaii Five-O.”