http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/sports/football/04pickett.html
Interesting New York Times article on former high school rodeo star, Cody Pickett, from a two generation rodeo & three generation football family who is now a quarterback with the San Francisco 49'ers.
Now granted it's been more than a few years since I made anything resembling a living on the back of a horse... but as far as I know, not a whole lot of new lingo has been added to the cowboy culture; still, of course, I could easily be mistaken. Like I said... it's been... a few years. Ergo - anyone out there have any idea what the last sentence below is supposed to mean?
"I had a rope in hand from the time I was born," he said. "It's something I'll do one of these other days again. But it's not like I'm going to ride my horse back to the deal tonight and feed and water my steer."
I guess the phrase - 'the deal' - has a meaning up in the Northern ranges that escapes me - since Cody Pickett was raised in Idaho - and I spent most of my time in South-Western/mid-Great Basin areas. Also, the phrase, go home and 'feed and water my steer' is a little odd, as that phrase is usually used in referring to feeding and watering one's horse; but that can be easily attributed to being humorous.
But - 'back to the deal tonight'? Is ' deal' supposed to be a ranch? Stable? Corral? Remuda?
So - do any of you Northern range types out there know what the heck 'back to the deal' means?
PS - And speaking of (potential) New York Times Corrections -
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2005/11/in_all_truthiness.html
Kevin observes that the New York Times is still sticking by 'Marina County' as being LA's newest exurban real estate hot spot...
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3 comments:
Maybe "steer" is a typo. "Steed" makes sense, in a high-falutin' way.
No, I think the steer part is correct. Since he's a calf roper, this would imply that he has a roping steer that he feeds and waters at the end of the day along with his horse.
Now that is, of course, a deliberate comic construct, since a calf roper needs to practice with lots of diferent animals and cattle pretty much feed and water themselves from collective natural and man-provided feed and watering sources.
On second thought - you may be right! Steed reads so much better - and logical - than steer. Maybe this reporter used the same cell phone that produced 'Marina County' in last Sunday's New York TImes.
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