More shit

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

--- David Simpson <dsimpson at condor.depaul.edu> wrote:
> From popular slang to the Pynchon phrase book:
> 
> Shit-eating grin -- a big, wide, guilty smile (as after some devilish
> triumph or not entirely wholesome bit of merriment). Several of
> Pynchon's characters are described as "coprophagously agrin" or by
> some similar expression.

I've always interpreted (and occasionally used)the phrase in a
different sense.  Not big wide guilty or devilish or merry -- this is,
rather, the  sheepish, embarrassed, painful grin of someone in a
powerless position, or of an otherwise powerful individual who has been
caught doing unspeakable things with cigars and interns.  Think of the
submission grin/rictus of a chimpanzee!  Who among us doesn't have to
"eat shit" once in a while?  We are never merry in that moment, are we?

Mark(Murk)

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