"in the soup" revisited

[Gerald Cohen]

     In a 3 Oct. 2002 ads-l message Barry Popik noted OED2's first
attestation of April 1889 for "in the soup" (= in serious difficulty)
and then presented a slightly earlier one:
           1 September 1888, New York Times, p. 8:
        'McLaughlin won with King Crab in the easiest possible
fashion, and    Speedwell finished "in the soup."'

     It may be significant that this first known attestation of "in
the soup" comes in a context which provides a rationale for the
expression: a winning horse named "(King) Crab" and another other
horse  which is left behind (in the soup, i.e., the hot water which
the crab has left).  Maybe the sportswriter of this turf article
coined the expression.

     Of course, maybe slang "in the soup" already existed without
having previously made its way into print.  But the above first
attestation might still  be significant for having introduced the
term into print--in the prestigious New York Times, specifically in a
horse-racing article whose readers share the same love of
word/expression creativity as many sportswriters do. (Just look at
horseracing lingo and some of the monikers fastened on the powerful
and exquisitely beautiful racehorses).

     With the seal of approval of an appearance in the NY Times, the
expression could then move more easily from the periphery of American
speech into the mainstream of American (thence British) colloquial
expressions. I assume that for the average speaker of English, the
original imagery of a  crab leaving the soup was soon lost and
replaced by that of cannibals boiling their next meal.

Gerald Cohen