Hell, west and crooked

Posted by RRC on June 26, 2008 at 16:43

In Reply to: Hell, west and crooked posted by Joe on June 26, 2008 at 04:33:

: : Where did "Hell, west and crooked" originate? I'm assuming it means to travel everywhere / across the country...

: It is a variant of the "west and crooked" phrase
: including hell wascommon by 1870's in United States. Found in literature as well as newspapers, likey western slang, severl meanings as both in getting "knocked cockeyed" or as in heading some where in a rather ruined state.

: Also very Australian but later, suspect it was one of the cattle ranching words that came to be used in Australia.

There are also a lot of hits in Google News Archive in the 1880's-1920's US papers for "galley west and crooked" as well as a few for "sky west and crooked". I noticed one which said galley west and crooked was like higgledy-piggledy. "Sky West and Crooked" is also the title of a 1966 Hayley Mills film.