Pigs & mud

Posted by Werner on December 06, 2003

I used the phrase "a pig knows the mud he rolls in" to mean that someone knows the familiar territory among his peers, the other day. My wife thought it was a crude phrase and objected to it.

Are there phrases that mean the same thing, but are more genteel? What I wanted to convey is that a person who long works in a particular field knows his peers and their habits and intents, knows the work, knows the routines, understands the signals, etc.

Thanks.