August 12, 2003

Homophonophobia

In BOTW yesterday, James Taranto highlighted this item:

Is There Rubber Underneath It or Something?
"Freedom Is Facing Tough Road to Hoe"--headline, Washington Post, Aug. 9

Maybe I'm the one that's missing the point, but isn't the problem here that the old saying is, "tough row to hoe?" Either that or I wasted a lot of summers as a kid hoeing rows of vegetables instead of the pavement near the vegetable garden on my grandparents' farm.

Posted by Charles Austin at August 12, 2003 11:18 PM
Comments

Re: your "Homophonophobia":
Via (googled) http://www.lssu.edu/banished/archive/1989.php
(Archives: Banished Words 1989):
"Tough Road To Hoe – Don’t use a hoe on roads. A hoe is too small and the road is too wide; too tough to hoe. Use a hoe to make rows in fields of soft dirt, but not on a playing field. It’s a tough ROW to hoe, by the Joe. – Vince Greiner, Hart, Michigan."

Consensus.

Posted by: m at 08:26 PM