[Ads-l] Riposte: I ’m drunk, but I’ll get over that soon. You =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99re_a_fool_and_you=E2=80=99ll_?=never get over that

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jul 1 02:23:46 UTC 2020


Way back in June 2018 Ben Zimmer kindly brought my attention to a
tweet by top slang  and quotation researcher Jonathon Green containing
a wonderful 1880 citation showing an instance of a quip that falls
within a family of jokes that is often associated with Winston
Churchill:

https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1011091906170900481
https://twitter.com/MisterSlang/status/1010947018892759041

The Quote Investigator website now has an article on this topic
containing some additional earlier citations.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/06/28/drunk/

Here is the initial citation I have found which is dated 1863.

[ref] 1863 July 1, Urbana Union, (Filler item), Quote Page 4, Column
1,Urbana, Ohio. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
The drunken fellow's reply to the reprimand of a temperance lecture,
delivered in some of the stupid forms of that order of men is worth
remembering. "I'm drunk-but-I'll get over that pretty soon; but you're
a fool-and you'll never get over that."
[End excerpt]

The QI website also has an antique article from 2011 focused on the
Churchill anecdote which has now been updated.

Yes, I Am Drunk, But You Are Ugly. Tomorrow I Will Be Sober, And You
Will Still Be Ugly
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/08/17/sober-tomorrow/

Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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


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