"go figure"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

>
> I remember it from the 1980s in NYC, so I checked LEXIS-NEXIS (just the
> "major newspapers" option; I'm short on time). A 17 Nov. 83 Tom Shales TV
> column in the Wash. Post was the earliest hit. Hope this helps.
>
> I know I never heard "go figure" in the 70s (i.e., when I was in the
> Midwest, and then among a mix of American expatriates overseas). Based on
> where I first heard it had always assumed, without research, that it was
> maybe an east-coast big-city locution.
>
> You guys need access to a LEXIS-NEXIS account if you don't already have it!

We have Lexis, and in fact our earliest example is pre-LN, to 1980, in
fact, but this seems so dramatically later than what my expectations
say it should be that I didn't bother mentioning it.

Perhaps I'm just a New Yorker, but I would have expected 1950s at
latest.

JTS