Fun with phrases: "Ripped from today's headlines"

[Jonathan Lighter]

>  I've always thought that "ripped from tomorrow's headlines" and Law &
Order's "ripped from yesterday's headlines" ... were the
extensions.

They are, they are.

But before 1936, it looks like *nothing* was ever ripped from any headlines.

Except individual printed words, of course. In theory.

BTW, "torn from..." actually shows up a few weeks later:

1936 _Salt Lake Tribune_ (Dec. 5)  "I'd Give My Life," a gripping drama
that might have been torn from today's headlines.

JL

On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 1:32 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Fun with phrases: "Ripped from today's headlines"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 8:17 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Fun with phrases: "Ripped from today's headlines"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 1936 _Pampa [Tex.] Daily News_  (Sept. 20) 14: Ripped Red Hot From
> Today's
> > Headlines  "STAKEDOWN" with LEW AYRES   JOAN PERRY.
> >
> > 1937 _Daily Journal-World_ (Lawrence, Kans.) (March 31) 3: Drama Ripped
> > From Today's Headlines! ...a thundering drama of a man's power against a
> > woman's burning hate.  Edward Arnold and Francine Larrimore in "John
> > Meade's Woman."
> >
> > And regularly since then.
> >
> > JL
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> I don't get it. Isn't that the way that it's supposed to be? I've
> always thought that "ripped from tomorrow's headlines" and Law &
> Order's "ripped from yesterday's headlines" - only with the advent of
> L&W did it occur to me that the latter was a possibility - were the
> extensions.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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