"screw the pooch" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 6:11 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>
> Bill Mullins wrote:
>> If I search Google Books for "Screw the pooch", delimited by date from
>> 1900 to 1970, I get one hit for "Canticle for Liebowitz" (in a "no
>> preview" version), dated supposedly 1959.
>>
>> If I search the Amazon version of the book for "pooch", I get nothing.
>>
>> This isn't helpful to Ben's request, but it is odd . . . .
>
> Bill: The goodreads website has a review of the novel "A Canticle for
> Leibowitz" and the phrase "screw the pooch" was used by the reviewer.
> Why is this relevant? I hypothesize that the Google search engine is
> using this type of indirect "associational" informational to generate
> false positive matches.
>
> A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34556028
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Thus we see the overarching theme of Miller’s masterpiece; the
> cyclical nature of history. Miller’s moral : as a species we are too
> stupid not to truly learn from our past blunders and are doomed to
> continue to screw the pooch and the planet with our giant, atomic
> phalluses. I know, not exactly a cheery, pump it up pep talk. However,
> the tone and the narrative style are anything but dreary.
> [End excerpt]

I believe Garson's hypothesis is correct. The same thing happens
searching in Google Books for other phrases in the Goodreads review,
such as "cheery, pump it up pep talk."

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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