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bilby commented on the word doesn't know if it's arseholes or tuesday
According to madmouth, an Anthony Powellism.
July 20, 2009
madmouth commented on the word doesn't know if it's arseholes or tuesday
I'd cite it but I've got Dance to the Music of Time in three-novel volumes; quite a bit of leafing. the character who says it is Howard Bagshaw, I believe--a drunken publisher.
July 20, 2009
TonySever commented on the word doesn't know if it's arseholes or tuesday
The Anthony Powell citation comes in Chapter 3 of Books do Furnish a Room, but in that context it appears to have nothing to do with drunkenness, despite Bagshaw's fondness for a glass of beer. Rather it seems to imply complete ignorance:
"As a matter of fact I came across him in the first instance through a small ILP group in India, but Trapnel didn't know whether it was arse-holes or Tuesday, so far as all that was concerned."
I've been trying for years to find the origin of the phrase, but no-one (including members of the Anthony Powell Society) seems to know where it comes from.
January 2, 2012