...fair to middling...

[Gerald Cohen]

My thanks to George Cole for a helpful message he sent me about "fair
to middling," which I now share with ads-l.

---Gerald Cohen


>Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 21:40:00 -0500
>From: GSCole <gscole at ark.ship.edu>
>To: Gerald Cohen <gcohen at umr.edu>
>Subject: ..fair to middling..
>
>Gerald,
>I cannot definitively answer your question, but a search of MOA-Cornell
>found the following, which speaks of "men in the middling class" and, in
>reference to a detective, "Ours was 'from fair to middling,' in
>cotton-brokers' phrase...."
>
>http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fharp%2Fharp0035%2F&tif=00526.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABK4014-0035-78
>
>The quotes are from Rag Fair, London, Sept. 1867, p.516.
>===========
>
>And, with reference to an opera performance, in Xenophon's Memorabilia
>of Socrates, Jan. 1849, p.109.
>
>http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Famwh%2Famwh0009%2F&tif=00117.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABL5306-0009-41
>
>==========
>
>I have heard the phrase used as a general categorization, without regard
>to a given object, i.e., it might be used to refer to the weather, or to
>the quality of food at a fast food place.
>
>But, I have never studied the phrase, per se, and I have heard it used
>without the sounding of the letter 'g', as in "fair to middlin".
>
>Hope that the above is not a pure waste of your bandwidth.  Also, hope
>that the links work.
>
>George Cole
>Shippensburg University