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When I was growing up, my mother, who was raised by Russian/Irish parents near the lake in south Chicago in the 1930s,40s,
used the phrase "blue gar botch" to idenitfy any otherwise unidentifiable illnesses.
I know a botch can mean sickness with rash and some Gar fish have bluish scales but wonder where this phrase originated and if anyone else has heard it.
Bob Bridges said:
It's a new one on me. Online Etymology Dictionary doesn't know about it. And you're ahead of me; I know about "botch" and "gar", of course, but I never knew gars might have bluish scales.
Have to admit only way I knew about the blue is an Ebay site selling rustic blue gar fish scales for scrapbooking. (??)
I keep thinking this is some obscure fish disease. Mom treated it as a casual thing. We didn't feel good, she said we had the Blue Gar Botch!
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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