"It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:50:05 -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>This passage from a popular Flynn / Reagan film may have contributed to
>the saying:
>
>_Desperate Journey_ (Raoul Walsh, 1942) : "[JED FORREST, RCAF (Arthur
>Kennedy).]
>I didn't get into this war for fun, or adventure, or because it was
>expected of me.  I got in because it was a hard, dirty job that has to
>be done before I can go back to doing what I liked - before a hundred
>million other people can get back to doing what they liked. It's no
>bright game to me. It's a job - a job that has to be done as rapidly
>and efficiently as possible."
>
>Quoted in Thomas Doherty, _Projections of War_ (N.Y.: Columbia U.P.,
> 1993), p. 107.

Didn't we establish about a month ago that the canonical form of the
expression was popularized by private eye Nick Stone in the series
"Tightrope" (1959-60)?


--Ben Zimmer