FYI: Origin of Mouse Potato

[Gareth Branwyn]

Someone wrote to me about the origins of the term "mouse potato." I
thought I might as well share the response to the list:


I got it from Steve Cisler, who at the time, was Apple's librarian. He
posted it on the Well BBS (in the Wired Conference's "Jargon Watch"
topic). Here's the original post:

Topic  21:  Jargon Watch
#190: Steve Cisler (sac)      Sat, Sep 11, '93  (05:23)       2 lines

   I really like Alice Kahn's term for the staff and readers of Wired:
   mouse potatoes.

Then Kevin Kelly wrote:

Topic  21:  Jargon Watch
#192: Kevin Kelly (kk)      Sat, Sep 11, '93  (08:10)       2 lines

Mouse potatoes is nice. If its Alice's coinage we should use it and
credit
   her. (She apparently coined the word hippies, yes?)

In 1997, Kahn published a book called Your Joke Is in the E-Mail :
Cyberlaffs from Mousepotatoes

Hope this helps.

Gareth


> I'm trying to track down the source of the phrase "mouse potato" that
> has
> recently come up in an online forum.  The earliest reference I can find
> online seems to be the Jargon Watch column from Wired Magazine issue
> 2.01, in
> January of 1994. Is there any possibility that you might have some old
> archives around indicating where the phrase originated?
>
> thank you