This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

[Baker, John]

        How old is this meme?  The earliest I see is from the Hartford
Courant, 2/10/1999, quoting Colin Quinn on Saturday Night Live the
previous week:  "American warplanes attacked newly installed Iraqi
anti-ship missile launchers along the Persian Gulf. An enraged Saddam
Hussein scolded his troops saying, 'You see, this is why we can't have
nice things!'"


        Anything earlier?


John Baker

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org