This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I also recall another comedian on the subject, who used high-grade
Chinet-type paper plates instead of the flimsy ones, because "I like
nice things".  Kevin Meaney????

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Baker, John
> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 9:53 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>         Thanks, Bill.  Of course, as Barbara Need noted, the
> collocation
> is undistinctive and must have been used many times before Poundstone
> made it part of her act, leading to its becoming an Internet meme.
>
>         I had noticed that Poundstone was quoted as having used the
> line, but my source was later than the SNL usage.  It's interesting to
> see who stole from whom.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf
> Of Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 6:14 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Paula Poundstone in the Dallas paper (BEHIND THE LAUGHS - Comic Paula
> Poundstone is her own favorite target _The Dallas Morning News_ -
> Saturday, June 25, 1988 Author: Ken Perkins: p. 5C):
> "She was one of those angry moms that use to get mad at absolutely
> everything. I remember the time I knocked a Flintstone glass off the
> kitchen table, and she said, "Dammit, that's why we can't have nice
> things .""
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf Of Baker, John
> > Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 2:15 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ---------------
> > --------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> > Subject:      This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
> >
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> >         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
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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