Einstein

[A. Maberry]

Dennis' version is the one I grew up with in Portland late 50s-60s. By the
early 70s I was hearing "Nice shot, Oswald" when someone did something
clumsy or other wise "messed-up real bad".

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> Mark,
>
> Indeed you have the bracketed part wrong for me; it was (among the clever
> teenagers of the Louisville KY area of the early 50's)
>
> No shit, Sherlock.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
> >Barry sez:
> >
> >>>>
> >HE'S NO EINSTEIN
> >
> >     Jay Leno uses this a lot.  It's rare, but a person's last name alone can
> >be the slang phrase.  "Hey, nice going, EINSTEIN!"
> >     I've never seen it recorded.
> >     The AMERICAN MACHINIST, 3 December 1956, pg. 109, advertisement for
> >Tomkins-Johnson reamers:
> >
> >     _Now they call Joe a genius_*
> >     *He's no Einstein--but he figured how to cut costs...
> ><<<
> >
> >>From the late fifties and early sixties, I recall these used sarcastically:
> >
> >     Great play, Shakespeare!
> >          (sports, games?)
> >
> >     [Brilliant deduction], Sherlock!
> >          (to someone who has just stumbled upon the obvious;
> >           but I think I have the bracketed part wrong)
> >
> >
> >-- Mark
>
> Dennis R. Preston
> Department of Linguistics and Languages
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
> preston at pilot.msu.edu
> Office: (517)353-0740
> Fax: (517)432-2736
>