"Murphy's Law" at Edwards AFB, Muroc, Calif.

[A. Maberry]

I'm with dInIs. I've heard the expression "too many chiefs and not enough
indians" all my life. I remember my grandfather using it in the 1950's and
60s at least--and he wasn't one to pick up newfangled expressions.

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> If "Too many chiefs and not enough indians" was first attested in the US in
> the 1970's, it was at least twenty years behind my use of it in the 1950's,
> but us real speakers have always got the jump on print. Lucky somebody got
> it from a 1950 print source to show that we are right (still proabably
> decades behind).
>
> dInIs (a sociolinguist always surprised at the love some have for print)