"Nickel gets you on subway, but garlic gets a seat"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

"A NICKEL GETS YOU ON THE SUBWAY, BUT GARLIC GETS YOU A SEAT"

GARLIC + SUBWAY + SEAT--4,130 Google hits, 236 Google Groups hits

This is given as an old New York saying, but I can't find old evidence of it. It's sometimes given as "a nickel" and sometimes as "three nickels will get you on the subway"--hey, three nickels ain't that old!

(GOOGLE)
Food and Drink - Ezine Articles
... A Second Language... "Three nickels will get you on the subway, but garlic
will get you a seat." ~Old New York saying. Low Fat Fallacy ...
ezinearticles.com/?cat=Food%20and%20Drink - 9k - Cached - Similar pages

Favorite quotes about garlic
... Mantua, 1491. "Three nickels will get you on the subway - but garlic will
get you a seat" (Very) old New York saying. "Let food be ...
thegarlicstore.com/index.cgi/quotes.html - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

Spring is coming !!!! (Long but good)
... Three nickels will get you on the subway - but garlic will get you a seat" - (Very) old New York saying Fava Beans are delicious and well worth the trouble. ...
rec.food.cooking - Mar 8, 1999 by DJ Foodie - View Thread (4 articles)

(WWW.NEWSPAPERARCHIVE.COM)
Mountain Democrat  Friday, April 03, 1998 Placerville, California
...nickel will get you on the SUBWAY, but GARLIC will get you a SEAT. OLD NEW YORK.....written by Tom Grant AND Jill Woods, AND "Big written by Tim Nicholes AND..


(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
   1. Stamp out mouthwashbreath; Garlic
By Stewart McBride Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor. Christian Science Monitor (1908-Current file). Boston, Mass.: Dec 3, 1980. p. B16 (4 pages)
First Page: An old New York Yiddish maxim holds that: "Three nickels will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat."

   2. Take a Deep Breath And Read All About The Big Garlic Trend; Maybe You'd Better Hold It When Near Gilroy, Calif.; Strike of Pyramid Builders Take a Deep Breath And Read All About The Big Garlic Trend
By RAY VICKER Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wall Street Journal (1889-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jul 1, 1981. p. 1 (2 pages)
First page: In New York in the days of the five-cent subway, they used to say that you could ride the subway for a nickel but garlic got you a seat.

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"OKOLEHAU" AND "HOLY COW"

OKOLEHAU--213 Google hits, 37 Google Groups hits

Will "Okolehau" be in the revised OED?

Yes, I saw that cut-off 1917 CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE citation. We have some Hawaii newspaper coverage in Newspaperarchive. How old is "okolehau" as a popular drink? The thing is this--"Holy Cow!" is no later than 1920, and almost certainly before.

It wasn't coined by baseball announcers in New York or Chicago.

(GOOGLE)
Holy Cow, Find Lowest Book Price, 0767915747 ISBN
... Holy Cow! (By Harry Caray) Hardcover / The Random House Publishing Group / 0394574184.
O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto (By Phil Rizzuto ...
www.bookfinder4u.com/detail/0767915747.html - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

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BIG APPLE WHORES (continued, of course)

After Ben Zimmer posted a piece about this urban legend on a Google Group, I wrote to snopes. No one has responded. Why isn't this on snopes? Snopes has at least replied to me in the past. But now--nothing.

In my web site piece about the Big Apple Fest, I encourage other voices to write to the Big Apple Fest about this Whore Hoax and try to get a response. Not only is this insanity still there, but www.bigapplefest.org now highlights it on the opening page.

My letter to the editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail was not published, no one has contacted me, and there has been no correction to its August 14th story "What Would Madam Eve Think?"