[Ads-l] There is no gravity, the earth sucks

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Good work Wilson, Ben, Bill, and Jonathan.
Here is an interesting variant phrasing with "myth" and "world" in 1971.

[ref] 1971 Copyright, Requiem for a Teacher by Robert Fogg and Bob
Clifton, Chapter 3: Raeger, Quote Page 24, Golden Bell Press, Denver,
Colorado. (Internet Archive at archive.org) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
If you think you can take it, we have a saying that's pretty popular
on days like I had today . . . Ready??
gravity is a myth; the whole world sucks.
[End excerpt]

Here is a variant with "myth" and "Earth" in a 1974 encyclopedia of graffiti.

[ref] 1980 (Copyright 1974), Encyclopedia of Graffiti, Collected by
Robert Reisner and Lorraine Wechsler, Section: Oragenitalism, Quote
Page 259, (Reprint of 1974 edition from Macmillan, New York), Galahad
Books, New York. (Verified on paper)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Gravity is a myth; the Earth sucks.
(Men's room, Grumman Aviation, Long Island, New York)
[End excerpt]

Barry Popik explored a different variant:
If the world didn’t suck, we’d all fall off.

Barry found a citation dated November 28, 1999.
https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/if_the_world_didnt_suck1

Garson


On Mon, Mar 14, 2022 at 12:47 PM Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Bill,
>  https://archive.org/details/lp_hanging-in-there_hudson-landry/disc1/01.01.+Ajax+Liquor+Store.mp3
> <https://archive.org/details/lp_hanging-in-there_hudson-landry/disc1/01.01.+Ajax+Liquor+Store.mp3>
> gives
> a 1971 date.
>
> That, to me, is more consistent with "your acapella head" and "earth sucks"
> (and possibly "hang in there")  than a date of 1960.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Mar 14, 2022 at 11:35 AM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Without disparaging Wilson's memory, here is a documented cite:
> >
> > 1960 Hudson & Landry Hanging in There Dore Records LP-324 [liner notes,
> > back of the album cover]
> >
> > Landry also writes tone poems for your acapella head: YOU WERE NEVER
> > LOVELIER, AND I THINK IT'S A SHAME; THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GRAVITY --
> > THE EARTH SUCKS; IV'E FALLEN INTO SOMETHING AND I HOPE IT'S LOVE; THE ONLY
> > THING I HATE WORSE THAN BIGOTRY IS MINORITY GROUPS; and THE BOTTOM'S
> > DROPPED OUT OF EVERYTHING BUT YOU.
> >
> >
> > > Re:  Undocumentable Army graffito
> > >
> > > Seen in November, 1959, written in pencil on the outside wall of one of
> > the
> > > mess halls at the now-defunct Fort Devens, Massachusetts:
> > > "There is no gravity / The earth sucks."
> > >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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

------------------------------------------------------------
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