"You Could Look It Up" (1964)

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YOU COULD LOOK IT UP

"You Can Check It Out."
--NY Senate candidate Rick Lazio, misquoting Casey Stengel in a debate with Hillary Rodham Clinton, 13 September 2000.

   I haven't looked up Fred Shapiro's notes.
   Actually, "You Could Look It Up" is the title of a James Thurber short story in the SATURDAY EVENING POST in 1941.  It's about a manager inserting a midget into the game, and the story is often credited as Bill Veeck's inspiration for Eddie Gaedel.
   When did Casey Stengel say it?  A web search reveals:  "How the hell should I know?  Most people my age are dead.  You could look it up."  On being asked about his future in the spring of 1965.
   From a story about Stengel's opinions in the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 4 February 1964, pg. 20, cols. 2-4:

_"Yogi a Mean Manager"_
_--You Could Look It Up_

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MOPTOP

   OED?
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 10 February 1964, pg. 23, col. 5:

   Without their shaggy-dog moptops and their sensational buildup, they would be four nice boys with a total of one weak voice and one weak beat that rolls more than it rocks.

(Yeah, the Beatles are overrated--ed.)

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PRAYER BREAKFAST

   OED has 1966.
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 6 February 1064, pg. 10, col. 1:

_Politicians but No Politics at Prayer Breakfast_
By David Lawrence
WASHINGTON.
   Perhaps a "Presidential prayer breakfast," such as is held here annually, may seem like a paradox.  But the name describes a meeting of more than 1,000 persons, most of them in the government, who sat down together in the ballroom ofthe Mayflower Hotel at 8 o'clock yesterday morning to pray together.
   Since Chief Justice Earl Warren himself was at the head table, the event could hardly be criticized on constitutional grounds...
(Col. 4--ed.)
   The movement was founded by Dr. Abraham Vereide, who also initiated the breakfast groups at the Capitol in the two Houses of Congress more than 20 years ago.  Now there are many breakfast groups composed of personnel of state as well as city governments.

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IBM & "BIG BLUE" (continued)

   An interesting item is in the Sunday NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 9 February 1964, section 3, pg. 1, col. 2:

   IN FEW instances has one company so dominated an entire industry as has International Business Machines Corp., also known as The Behemoth and The Monster.  These are not names that sit well with the computing industry leader, but there is little it can do to stop the description, particularly in view of the fact that each year it gets a little bigger and fatter.

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THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG

   This title of a Neil Simon musical is also a headline in the NEW YORK section of the Sunday NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 9 February 1964, pg. 35, col. 1.

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BETTER WED THAN DEAD

   "BETTER WED THAN DEAD" is on a sign in the NEW YORK section of the Sunday NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 9 February 1964,pg. 31, col. 2.
   You can't believe everything you read.