Jackie, forgive me for asking this, but...

There is a vulgar expression "crazier than a s***house rat" which I have heard occasionally. I wonder where does this come from? That is, I wonder why a rat in a latrine would suffer from mental disorder? I would think it would be quite content in such a place.

Oh, I thought this was a thread about Republicans.

Actually®, I never really thought about it, but I suppose an outhouse would be a fine environment for said rodent. I imagine the expression comes from the human's point of view: Damn, that rat loves it in this s***house! He must be crazy!

In reply to:

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Oh, I thought this was a thread about Republicans

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Hilarious. Thank you very much.

"I would think it would be quite content in such a place."

Since there is nothing to eat there, only a crazy rat would be content.

Rats!-- but this is a yart-- we can start it up again.. but we had oodle of rats expressions. Rats up (and down) the drain, wet rats, things that looked like a rats tails--

It was --oct? Nov? of last year...

In defence of Alex, this is not just about rats. It is a question about how a phrase made sense to someone. It is totally unreasonable to expect relative newcomers to search back over a month.I still resent the waste of two hours I put into trying to discover how "ayleurs" originated. Old timers can simply ignore posts that don't interest them.Sorry, dear Helen, I do not want to offend you.

point of view

'nuff to drive any rodent mad

Dr bill, no offence-- -- I understand what you mean-- i know there is a rat thread--and even I am loath to search-- but it was a lovely long thread-- and rehashing (yet another rehashed topic) a topic in less than a year can be boring--

there are several options...
search, (and eventualy find it)
ask someone to assist with the search, (and maybe have more (or less!) luck, or
just continue the yart-- and let us old hands, and booh pahs deal with it!

My opinion of the phrase is that it is a second rate knockoff on the much older one "poor as a churchmouse". Church mice were desperately poor in the sense that in the early churches when the phrase was coined, there was no food stored nor any eating (except communion wafers).

Well, if you were a claustrophobic rat living on a steady diet of s*** you'd go crazy, too!

God forbid that any public toilet should be so mis-managed or misused such that a rodent could find "a steady diet' there.

"crazier than a rat in an sh_thouse"

I believe this was first said by a wife of her foolishly scheming husband whose merely scheming father was hiding in the outhouse having duped his son into marrying her, and just after she'd revealed to her father-in-law that the house he was sitting in constituted her entire estate and dowry.