"Those big-shot writers could never dig..."

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please explain the given line to me?

"Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar."
Mickey Spillane

Tom

[FangFang]

Hi, Tom:
Only from your sentence, I think it is just a joc expression. Maybe here, the salted peanuts and caviar have some fig meanings concerned. "salted peanuts" : common or general things for ordinary people; "caviar" :delicate or refined things for important people.
By the way,"be caviar to the general" means something which is too elegant to be apprieciated by ordinary people.
I just understand your sentence from an opposite way.

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

FangFang has a good interpretation for salted peanuts and caviar.

If I tell you that dig is slang for understand, do you dig the sentence now?

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English