"As If"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:03 AM -0400 6/21/05, Fred Shapiro wrote:
>I assume that the expression "as if" did not originate in the 1995 film
>Clueless.  Any opinions as to whether that film popularized the
>expression?  Does anyone have any early citations for it?
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
On a related topic, Fred and others may (or may not) want to check
out tonight's AFI extravaganza on CBS-TV, a three-hour countdown* of
the top 100 American movie quotes of all time.  Fred, if you give us
your list, we can compare and contrast.

Larry

*In writing this, I began wondering when _countdown_ began--I
remember it from pop/rock music radio shows, of the top n hits of the
week or (on New Year's Eve) of the year, well before I heard it from
those rocketry geeks over at Cape Canaveral, but the OED has lots of
rocketry/missile launch cites (beginning 1953) and no entry for the
pop radio usage, which is certainly where the "countdown" in shows
like tonight's transferred from.  It's now very widespread--ESPN, for
example, uses the device constantly for all sorts of shows ranking
the top n whatevers (plays of the day, all-time comebacks, on-field
blow-ups,...).