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Will you help me out? For over 40 years, I’ve been trying to figure out this Steve McQueen line from my favorite Western, The Magnificent Seven: “It took me a long time to learn my elbow from a hot rock.”

by | May 1, 2006 | Inside History

Will you help me out? For over 40 years, I’ve been trying to figure out this Steve McQueen line from my favorite Western, The Magnificent Seven: “It took me a long time to learn my elbow from a hot rock.” Mike Appel Belleville, Illinois I’m thinking that back in 1960, scriptwriters used gentler words. Today McQueen would probably say, “Back then, I didn’t know my ass from a hole in the ground,” or something similar.  If I was writing the script, I’d have had him say something l


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