Speaking Cracker

Huey "Kingfish" Long and Lawton "He-Coon" Chiles could rustle up a good word when needed.

Kingfish:

"Listen, there are smarter guys than I am, but not in Louisiana"

"slick as polecat grease"

"more trouble than a boat can haul"

"as hungry as a seed tick"

"as crooked as a boar shoat's tail"

"a neck like a cushaw and a head like a gourd"

Walkin' Lawton:

"I didn't come here to stay, I came to make a difference"

"Even a blind hog will root out an acorn once in a while"

"A cut dog barks"

"It's a sorry frog who won't holler in his own pond"

"We've got to go to the lick log"

"the Ole He-Coon walks just before the light of day"

Al Gore once recalled a time he saw former Texas governor Ann Richards and Chiles hanging out together, trading crackerisms. A Tennessee farm boy himself, Gore thought he had heard it all. He was wrong.