Wednesday, April 5, 2017

He Came Out the Hole Like Jack the Bear

Yes, this is another in the Rockhouse's beloved series of American expressions which make no sense whatsoever.

The man lifted up his John Deere baseball cap, slapped it on his thigh, and said, "Dayum, he came out the hole like Jack the Bear!"

And you know that's got to be good.


I'm not making it up since I've heard that expression not once but many times.  Part of the attraction to it, I think, is the expression doesn't make any sense.  John Deere digs it that you have no idea what he's saying.


In English it means a drag racer achieved excellent traction control from his tires and, thus, was able to maximize the power transfer from his engine to the track for the greatest immediate increase in forward speed when the green light appeared for the start of a race.

Ed:  I liked it better with Jack the Bear

Me too but it still doesn't mean anything.


When a bear comes out of his cave, he's going to be sleepy, confused, and probably pissed or at least grumpy.  He will be much like your favorite coffee drinker before she gets her coffee.  Damn right, she is dangerous ... but ... one thing she is not is fast.

Ed:  yeah but you still run!

Of course I do after I have spent a great deal of time with coffee drinkers and from that I have learned it's important to be faster than Jack the Bear or be exceptionally good at ducking.


But Jack the Bear came out of a hole and wtf hole is that?  There's a million porno metaphors but none seem particularly useful in this context.

It doesn't seem there's any sense in this one so we will turn it over to Granny:

"It don't mean doodlysquat" - Granny in "Outlaw Josey Wales"

Ed:  I still like it, Granny

Granny:  me too


I don't have any inventory of these.  They occur to me as I wander about and I think, "Nope, they will never get what this one means."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jack (The Bear) Nicklson?? Refers to golfing??

Unknown said...

Maybe as your guess is as good as mine. I'm sure that was the expression but I have no idea who Jack was.

Jack Nicklaus was a blondie golfer and people seemed to like him quite a bit. Unknown if he had any talent for fast acceleration, tho.

I'm keep coming up with Jack Kennedy for other famous people named Jack and that name blows out any others. Coming up dry.

Anonymous said...

Jack Nicholas was The Golden Bear so he is not Jack the Bear so that dog don't hunt.
I have never used that in reference to drag racing but more so for closed circuit racing. And used it for how well someone exited a corner. The hole being the apex of corner. So Jack Brabham might be closer but he was Black Jack

Unknown said...

Aha, it becomes more clear but we still don't know who he was. I'm guessing Jack Black is not a match.