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Entry from April 19, 2017
“How do you tell if a person is a level-headed country boy?”/“Snuff runs out of both sides.”

A Southern saying about a snuff dipper is:
 
Q: How do you tell if a person is a level-headed country boy?
A: Snuff runs out of both sides of his mouth.

 
“Son, that is what you call a level-headed man…when he dips that snuff, it runs out of his mouth down both sides — evenly” was cited in print in 1979. “A level headed Tennessean. Guess that means the same amount of snuff runs out of both sides of my mouth” was printed in a 1982 book.
 
     
Google Books
National Tax Journal
Volume 32
1979
Pg. 294:
Papa used to say, “Son, that is what you call a level-headed man.” “That old snuff dipper,” he said, “when he dips that snuff, it runs out of his mouth down both sides — evenly.”
     
Google Books
The Sunshiners:
Secrets of Humorous Speakers Who Light Up Our Lives

By Judith Eberhart and Dottie Walters
Glendora, CA: Royal
1982
Pg. 5:
It compliments me when I am referred to as a level headed Tennessean. Guess that means the same amount of snuff runs out of both sides of my mouth.
 
Google Books
Hometown Humor, USA:
More than 300 jokes from the porch swings, barber shops, corner cafés, and beauty parlors of America

By Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler
Little Rock, AR: August House Publishers
1991
Pg. 184:
And she’s the sweetest thing in the South,
And the reason I say she’s level-headed is
Snuff runs out of both sides of her mouth.
 
Google Groups: rec.arts.tv.soaps
AMC: TAN: you know you’re a redneck
Stephanie Bragg
6/4/94
Pasadena, TX (my hometown) has a reputation as being very redneck. Remember “Urban Cowboy”? Anyway, thought y’all would enjoy this:
You Know You Belong In Pasadena, Texas If..
(...)
You think a person is “level-headed” when snuff juice runs out of both sides of her mouth at the same time.
 
23 November 1997, Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), “A new helping of good Scandinavian humor” by Dave Wood, pg. 17F, col. 1:
They’ve done lots more, but suffice it to say that what distinguishes their Scandinavian-American humor from the run-of-the-mill, level-headed-Norwegian-whose-snuff-juice-drips-from-both-sides-of-hi s-mouth or Ole-and-Lena humor books is threefold: ...
   
Google Groups: rec.org.sca
Lutefisk & Yams
Berwyn
2/1/98
(...)
(For those not from around here, “snuss” is the norsk-american for “snuff”, of the Copenhagen variety.  Thus the joke, How can you tell a level-headed Norwegian?  The snuss runs out both sides of his mouth at once.)
   
Google Groups: alt.fifty-plus.friends
Redneck Valentine
JerryD(upstateNY)
1/28/00
I knew she was a level-headed woman, because…......... tobacco juice ran out of BOTH sides of her mouth.
 
Google Groups: soc.singles.moderated
Songs of the South
Victor Eijkhout
8/16/01
Song called “Snuff Dipper”
 
“I got a level-headed woman,
the prettiest thing in the south;
I can tell she’s level-headed,
cause it’s running out of both sides of her mouth.”
 
Just heard on the radio. I’m not making this up.
   
Google Books
Dreams Do Come True
By Alan Johnson
Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse
2012
Pp. 51-52:
“I reckon your Grandma’s right. After all, she is a very level-headed woman. And, do you know how I know that?” Grandpa asked. “No sir,” I replied, and he quickly answered, “Well, because when she dips her snuff, the juice runs out both sides of her mouth! That’s how you can tell if a woman’s levelheaded or not!”
 
Twitter
Carl Bud‏
@CarlBud1
Carl Bud Retweeted @Peeps1941
Just Like A Level Headed Cowboy W/ Snuff Dripping From Both Sides Of His Mouth !Carl Bud added,
@Peeps1941 @peeps1941
Replying to @GeneMcVay @foxandfriends
Geraldo - Love everybody. Talks out of both sides of his mouth.
10:07 AM - 18 Feb 2017
 
The LaFayette Sun (La Fayette, AL)
April 19, 2017
Out with the old and in with the new
By Bill Frazer
(...)
The old joke was: How do you tell if a person is a level-headed country boy? Snuff runs out of both sides of his mouth.

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Wednesday, April 19, 2017 • Permalink


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