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Are we sure about "40 years"? What about 100 years?<br>
<br>
Best I can tell, the following is a full accounting of relevant GB
hits.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/vmTbK">http://goo.gl/vmTbK</a><br>
The National Builder. September 1910<br>
Winning With Building Hobbies. By J. Crow Taylor. p. 36/1<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I find that a good way to get around a lot
of cut throat competition is to get something else to talk about
besides prices. Get some features worked in that appeal to the
man. See that he gets interested in beautifying the house and
getting certain characteristics and then he is not likely to <span
class="gstxt_hlt">go figure </span>wth somebody else. Not so
hard anyway.</blockquote>
<br>
The date is very clear, right at the top of the page. What struck me
is that the expression does not quite appear to mean what it does
now--or, perhaps, it does and we just have no idea what it means.
;-)<br>
<br>
No, it's not the "Go figure!" expression. But it's not hard to see
that the latter may very well have been derived from it.<br>
<br>
If you think this is a singular case, think again!<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/oKJGZ">http://goo.gl/oKJGZ</a><br>
Scientific American. Supplement No. 1119. June 12, 1897<br>
The Lucifore--For Distributing Ignited Matches. p. 16/1-2<br>
<blockquote type="cite">The lucifore is a small apparatus designed
to permit of getting all the good possible out of poor or
indifferent matches, which, when struck, ignite or do not ignite,
as the case may be and which are apt to go figure. </blockquote>
<br>
To make things more interesting, that piece appears to be taken
(translated) from a French magazine.<br>
<br>
And another one, even closer to home.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/mGeDP">http://goo.gl/mGeDP</a><br>
Typographical Journal. Volume 41(2). August 1912<br>
From Local Unions. Buffalo, N.Y. By W. A. Coyell. p. 203/2<br>
<blockquote type="cite">"Dog days" being here, business is at a low
ebb. About the only thing on tap at present is the approaching
Cleveland convention. A goodly crowd from Buffalo will be in
attendance. Many of those intending to <span class="gstxt_hlt">go
figure </span>on killing two birds with one stone, especially
those of our members who are also members of the Eagles.</blockquote>
<br>
And another strange one a little bit later.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/RSSeR">http://goo.gl/RSSeR</a><br>
Hearings before the Committee on Investigation of the Indian
Service. [US] House of Representatives. March 12-14, 1917<br>
Condition of the Florida Seminoles. March 12, 1917. Statement of
Tony Tommy, a Seminole Indian. p. 34<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Mr. Tommy (18 year old witness). I have been
trying to <span class="gstxt_hlt">go figure </span>out since I
been going to school, and I would like to have some land for
myself, farm and houses and everything. Too many Indians laying
around now. They ought to be farmers living on it.</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
1897. 1910, 1912, 1917. Then a big gap. And, if you want a Jewish
source, I got one. The match, which is held at the opposite end by a
spring, rises quickly at the same moment and becomes vertical.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/BP4mX">http://goo.gl/BP4mX</a><br>
An Eskimo Named Joe Siegelman: A Play in Two Acts. By Abe Einhorn.
1968<br>
Act 2. p. 54<br>
<blockquote type="cite">/Mama./ A Nun? Go figure... even with the
Gentiles is too much permissiveness now. How could a nun get into
such a habit?</blockquote>
<br>
And it just happens to be just outside that 40 year window. Hmmm...<br>
<br>
Here's another one--again, an extended version that's been suggested
before, and a bit earlier than Einhorn's play.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/vbbGs">http://goo.gl/vbbGs</a><br>
Baseball Digest. June 1959<br>
Even Lary Can't Explain How He Hex-Rays Yanks. By Arthur Richman
(New York Mirror). p. 57/1<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Yet, I lost four times to the A's without
beating them once and wone only one game against the Orioles in
three starts. Go figure that out.</blockquote>
<br>
I am willing to bet that Arthur Richman was Jewish--but Frank Lary,
who is the source of that quote, probably was not. (Born and raised
on a farm in Alabama <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/Ij709">http://goo.gl/Ij709</a> )<br>
<br>
And an identical one from the same year.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/4WOyE">http://goo.gl/4WOyE</a><br>
The Crisis. January 1959 (Apparently picked up from America, 1958)<br>
Two News Items. p. 30/2<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><span class="st">One day the State Dept.
asks Russell to tour the world as a goodwill ambassador for the
United Sates and the next day the guy has trouble finding a
place to sleep and eat in the United Sta</span>tes. Go figure
that out.</blockquote>
<br>
The quote is from Red Auerbach, whose ethnic identity is beyond
doubt (nor is Bill Russell's, but that's a different story).<br>
<br>
And another play with a slightly extended expression--and, again,
the playwrite is Jewish.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/JWN9S">http://goo.gl/JWN9S</a><br>
The Beauty Part: A Comedy in Two Acts. By Sidney Joseph Perelman.
1963<br>
Act 1. p. 36<i><br>
</i>
<blockquote type="cite"><span class="st"><i>Hubris.</i> ... Listen,
I know that dodge. Your dealer told me about your publicity
phobia. (<i>Crosses L. to below No. 3, gazes around studio,
shakes head</i>.) </span>Go figure it. <span class="st">It
always kills me an artist should hole up in a flea-bag to
conceive a masterpiece.</span></blockquote>
<br>
And yet another, this time a novel, it seems.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/mJ2dY">http://goo.gl/mJ2dY</a><br>
To An Early Grave. By Wallace Markfield. 1964. [2000 edition]<br>
p. 94<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><span class="st">Whoosh, thought Morroe.
Look, look at him <i>shlubb </i>away! Eyes bulging, spittle
flying! </span>Go figure him <span class="st">out.</span></blockquote>
<br>
Markfield's book had been reprinted in 2000. I'm not sure of
Markfield's ethnic identity, but all the characters--at least on
that page--are Jewish (plus not the use of Yiddishisms--just on pp.
94-95, shlubb, bulvan, schlumping, bubbe, tocchis, hot pastrame and
lox wings).<br>
<br>
And yet another (earlier) play with no doubt about the ethnic
identity of the writer:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/DbmUZ">http://goo.gl/DbmUZ</a><br>
A Hole in the Head. By Arnold Schulman. 1957 [Unpublished play
copyright 1955]<br>
Act 2. p. 64<br>
<blockquote type="cite">/Sidney./ Would you believe that dumb jerk
can barely read and write his own name? Go figure. A man like that
makes a fortune.</blockquote>
<br>
And I can push the exact expression another few years back.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://goo.gl/GkDyp">http://goo.gl/GkDyp</a><br>
Billboard. November 1, 1950<br>
Night Club Reviews. La Martinique, New York. p. 44/3<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><span class="st">But despite the handicaps
of a typical jammed opening, a non-operating air-<wbr>conditioning
system --</span> go figure a heat w<span class="st">ave in
November -- the show came off way ahead. </span></blockquote>
<br>
So there you have it. Some tentative clustering in 1890s-1910s, and
another one, with unquestionable ethnic identity, from 1950-1964.<br>
<br>
VS-)<br>
<br>
On 4/29/2012 11:19 PM, J P Maher wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:201204300319.q3T8eKmC029436@wasabi.cc.uga.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Instead of presuming, we need to see loci from Jewish sources and Black English sources.=A0=A0=A0As a linguist living 40+ 40 years and taking notes in a Chicago Jewish neighborhood I'd say a Jewish origin cannot be presumed, but a corpus of TV sitcoms will show it's all over Black English.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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