Citation:
The Alternative English Dictionary
English slang - a part of The Alternative Dictionaries collection.

Doesn't know sh_t from shinola
+  "Doesn't know nothing" or "Can't tell good from bad" or, in reference to
a person, an idiot. Common expression in Southwestern U.S. A older and more
completeversion is "Doesn't know shit from shinola and thinks they are both
fat meat." Shinola was a popular brand of dark shoepolish.

I am humbly corrected

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Walter <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: Shinola


>In a message dated 11/23/1999 2:32:48 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><< Wasn't that Shinola shoe polish?   >>
>
>I was thinking about this one, too, Rev, and it struck me as MOST
improbable
>that the name Shinola was applied to shoe polish without the (alleged) hair
>care products company suing the shit out of them.  Has whoever claims that
>Shinola was Nubian Macassar got anything to prove it?
>
>Ralph