"michael adams" wrote in message
...

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
Chris Bacon writes:
| George.com wrote:
| A question for those who **** on their compost heap.
|
| Please don't be vulgar, George.com.

This is uk.rec.gardening. We call a spade a spade.

According to one unassailable Internet authority, that phrase
originated from an ancient Greek expression: _ta syka syka, te:n
skaphe:n de skaphe:n onomasein_ = "to call a fig a fig, a trough a
trough".
It was translated into English in 1542 by Nicholas
Udall in his translation of Erasmus's version as "to call a spade
[...] a spade".

above from -

http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/miftocllspdspd.shtml

The interesting thing to me in all this, is that there are no
actual euphemisms, so far as I know, for figs, troughs, or spades.

You have no choice but to call things figs or troughs or spades.

I'm a straightforrard Lancashire lad,
And I worked down the mine like me dad
Call a shovel a spade, for that's how I'm made
I'm a straightforrard Lancashire lad.

Steve