A pot or a window

Posted by Marian on April 05, 2003

Just heard this on an NPR radio station playing "This American Life." The story's too long to go into here, but suffice it to say that a man is about to give away an object thought to be quite valuable by some others. He's quoted as saying that a lawyer, to whom he owed a significant sum , called him to say that the man "wouldn't have a pot or a window" if the giveaway took place. My husband was listening to the story with me. He asked if I had ever heard that expression, and I said I hadn't. He said the reference is to a pot to piss in, and a window to throw it out of. In other words, the phrase is meant to imply destitution. Anyone ever heard this one?

• A pot or a window ESC 04/05/03