who will pick up the gauntlet?

[Laurence Horn]

 From the Safire "On Language" piece published in tomorrow's NYT
Magazine, p. 24:

[on "duck tape"]
The earliest civilian use I can find is in an advertisement by
Gimbels department store in June 1942 (antedating the O.E.D. entry by
three decades--nobody but nobody beats this column), which
substitutes our product for the "ladder tape" that usually holds
together Venetian blinds.  For $2.99, Gimbels--now defunct--would
provide blinds "in cream with cream tape or in white with _duck
tape_."

=============
Nobody but nobody can beat this June 1942 cite?   In any case, the
above certainly does improve noticeably on the 1971 entry I currently
find in the OED on-line (added Dec. 2001).  What gives?

larry