It's a good thing

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:30 PM -0400 6/20/02, Baker, John wrote:
>There's a subtle difference in emphases.  "It's a good thing!",
>meaning the alternative would be very bad, has been around for a
>long time, as Barry has already shown.  "X was a Good Thing" is in
>1066 and All That (which I'm currently reading to my 10-year-old
>daughter - not an obvious choice, but she seems to like it O.K.).
>Martha's by-word is "It's a _good_ thing."
>
>I don't know how you would go about antedating distinctions that are
>this subtle.
>
>John Baker
>
Well, I'm pretty sure the capitalized version of "(be a) Good Thing"
is from 1066&AT, so at least a case sensitive antedate would pick
that up.

larry