[Editors] A Hard Road/Row to Hoe

[Robyn Fizz]

For those of you at today's meeting, a bit more on the "row to hoe" 
vs "road to hoe" question.

http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/11917
Looks like "A Hard Road" was used in the 1840 presidential campaign.


http://www.puttingdownroots.net/columns/2000/cominguproses.htm
Then again, Davy Crockett seems to have coined "Hard Row" five years 
before that:

"In 1835, David Crockett is quoted as saying "I never opposed Andrew 
Jackson for the sake of popularity. I knew it was a hard row to hoe; 
but I stood up to the rack."

What rack? Not sure, but according to Bartlett's Dictionary of 
Americanisms (http://www.merrycoz.org/voices/bartlett/AMER12.HTM):

TO STAND UP TO THE RACK. A metaphorical expression of the same 
meaning as the like choice phrases, 'to come to the scratch;' 'to toe 
the mark.'

To conclude, by way of James Fenimore Cooper 
(http://www.fullbooks.com/Oak-Openings6.html): "The English used to 
boast that the Americans wouldn't 'stand up to the rack,' if the 
baggonet was set to work; 'but this was before we got our own 
toothpicks,' said the old man.

I don't know about you, but I've got my own toothpick. And I'm using 
it to hoe my row/road.

Cheers,
Robyn


-- 

Robyn Fizz
News Coordinator
MIT Information Services and Technology (IS&T)
N42-290B
Phone:  617 253-0540
Fax:  617 258-6875
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