Not Chopped Liver (1947); Texas Toast (1960); Ants on a Log (1983)

[Michael Quinion]

> On 9 August 2002, Michael Quinion--a brilliant OED contributor and web
> wordsmith who is not chopped liver--asked this:

<blushes prettily>

>    It's 1954 in the HDAS, but there's better.

Thanks!

But your recent antedating of "ball of wax" has destroyed a nice
theory I had about it. See the last para of

  http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-who5.htm

Such is etymology ...

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>