"Fun City" & "Go Fight City Hall" & "You can look it up"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 20 Aug 2002 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

> YOU CAN LOOK IT UP
>    Casey Stengel's famous phrase.  The first hit is 5 October 1952, pg. 51,
> but I couldn't spot it easily.  Next is "The Silent Mr. Stengel," 6 March
> 1955, pg. 52:
>    "You can look it up but he had Novokoff on one side of him and some one
> else whose name I've forgotten on the other but you can look it up."

This saying actually originated as the title of a 1941 James Thurber
story.  That story not only anticipated Stengel, but also Bill Veeck,
since the story involved a baseball team sending a midget to the plate.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
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