connect-the-dots

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 20 May 2002, Kathleen E. Miller wrote:

> I have not been able to pin down the origin of the name of the game,
> approximate date from literal meaning, to name of game, to metaphor, etc.-
> and I'm hoping someone can point my in the right direction.

Here's something I just found on JSTOR:

1973 _Systematic Zoology_ Sept. 228  Like Wallace, present day
biogeographers can only make crude estimates of the true limits of
biogeographic areas which are conceptually n-dimensional and congruent
with the organisms' ecologic niches.  Such "map areas" are merely a
collection of spots or a portion of the map's surface enclosed by a line
drawn through peripheral collecting stations in a free-wheeling game of
connect-the-dots.

Fred Shapiro
Editor
Yale Dictionary of Quotations (forthcoming)