Saucered and blowed

Posted by ESC on June 24, 2004

This is from President Clinton's book, "My Life." He is talking about an election at Boys Nation, a program he attended while in high school. ( www.legion.org/ boysnation/2003/ )

"Besides, I couldn't have won the governor's election anyway, since it was, in the Arkansas vernacular, 'saucered and blowed' - over before it started. My longtime friend from Hope, Mack McLarty, had it in the bag." "My Life" by Bill Clinton (Random House, New York, 2004) Page 60.

An earlier discussion from the archives:

SAUCERED AND BLOWED - "It's been 'saucered and blowed.'" A project has been completed - everything has been taken care of. This phrase originated in the country method of cooling one's coffee. Step 1: Pour some hot coffee in your saucer, blow it until it's cool enough to drink. Step 2: Either a) pour the saucered coffee back in the cup and drink or b) drink straight from the saucer. Note: this is a practice best done at home. This phrase was "gathered" on Jan. 5, 2001, by my spouse. The speaker was a Kentucky man.

Barney: Amongst the working class people in the North of England, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the accepted way to drink tea was to pour a little into the saucer, blow on it to cool it, and then consume with a noisy slurp before repeating the procedure. This custom has long since died out.

ESC: That must be where we picked it up. Here in the U.S. old folks in the country still saucer their coffee. City people just go ahead and burn their lips.