tl;dr: I say that phrase kind of often: "No digs for satan". Today is the first time that it really struck me as odd. I did a Google search for it and found nothing. I figured I would give the history of the phrase. At least as it refers to me.
I got some sort of Kroger advertisement in the mail, today, and it had a coupon for something called "Tornados": cheap tortilla-wrapped refined faux-food bits designed as an on-the-go meal. The microwavable burrito for the jetset generation, I suppose. I shook my head, since microwavable burritos are only tolerable when they are not tolerable at all, making a chic microwavable burrito is equivalent to making smooth sandpaper, and proclaimed "No Digs for Satan" before casting it aside.
I say that phrase kind of often: "No digs for satan". Today is the first time that it really struck me as odd. I did a Google search for it and found nothing. I figured I would give the history of the phrase. At least as it refers to me.
When I first came to Huntsville, there was an alt-newspaper. Pretty much identical to Valley Planet except it was edgier, tended to be even more alt, and would be downright insulting in places. Maybe it was an early version of Valley Planet? I don't think so. This would have been 1998. I know there was one with a name like Rave for awhile, maybe that was it? Cannot recall. Lot's of articles about liberal issues, alt-culture, media, and some local stuff.
Rather than an obit, they had something like a "What Circle of Hell?" (or very similarly titled) feature and brought out all the bad things the person had accomplished. Phil Hartman's wife was sentenced to "below".
They did media and specifically music reviews and such. It was because of that alt-paper that I tried out Tori Amos's Choir Girl Hotel. The most memorable thing I ever read in that paper was a review for the Teletubbies album. They described it as the elevator music for Hell and talked about how terrifying the song about Dipsy's hat was. Then, when it came to giving the score portion of the review, they didn't. There was some sort of frog/ribbit based review system. "This album gets three ribbits" or some such.
But instead of giving it half a frog or zero ribbits, they had, instead, the words "No digs* for Satan". And I laughed and laughted at that.
* DOUG'S NOTE, 2026-03-25: Thinking back all these years later, it might have been "no ribbits for Satan."
So, now, whenever I hear some bad idea or some company tries to trick me into a good deal that is not good for me at all, or anything along that lines, my primary response is "No digs for Satan". Something so bad that it doesn't need qualifying. My anti-actuary chant. My stand against bad capitalism and even poorer marketing.
To me, it was such an iconic phrase. Now everyone else can know where I got it from.
PS: For those curious to hear the album that was reviewed, you can sample it on AmazonMP3.com
Si Vales, Valeo
Comment(s)
NOTE: I got this comment from Chris B: I worked for a paper called The Scoop which later changed its name to Urban Propaganda. It sounds like you're referring to The Rant which bought out Urban Propaganda's assets and whose corpse was picked over to form Valley Planet.