We were having brunch with friends, and some people who looked like they had been rode hard and put up wet walked into the restaurant. As they slowly made their way to the table, one of our friends said, “They look drunker than Cootie Brown.”
I have heard this saying my entire life and have always wondered something.
Who is Cootie Brown?
It turns out that Cooter Brown – apparently Cootie is his nickname – has his own Wikipedia page and has been discussed in the Old Farmer’s Almanac. In both places, attempts are made to uncover the mystery of Cooter Brown.
During the Civil War, he lived somewhere along the border between the United States and the Confederacy. This could have been the Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania and Maryland or it could have been at any point on the map.
This meant a couple of things. He could have been drafted by either side, and he had family on both sides. Instead of making a decision between the two, Cooter decided to stay drunk for the entire war and make himself useless for military service.
Cooter’s years of drunkenness has been remembered through the annals of time, and he has become the personification of alcohol-induced goofiness.
A lot of people know his name, but I wonder how many people know the story of Cooter “Cootie” Brown.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
Funny! Never heard of him. Thanks for sharing.
From what I have read, it is an old southern saying.
We need more Cooter Browns. We’d have fewer wars if more people just opted to stay drunk until they were over.
Let’s just have a big hootenanny instead.
Works for me. I’ll bring my ukelele.
Never heard of him or the saying, thank you for the information
As Wikipedia said, it is more of a southern thing.
If’n another war breaks out i may adopt this technique.
Better stock up.
It wasn’t a bad idea.