"tinfoil hat brigade"

[Baker, John]

        From a review of the 1983 movie Lovesick, in the 2/19/1983 Miami
Herald (via Westlaw):  "There is more involved in this romance than a
striking violation of professional ethics, though the film does concede
that; along the way, a marriage is smashed, a suicidal patient is
abandoned, and a derelict is turned out into the street, wearing a
tin-foil hat to keep the Trade-Center beams off his brain."

        I'm not sure if this one shows that the practice goes back to
1979, or that tinfoil hats still were thought only to be a novelty in
1986; maybe both.  From the 11/10/1986 issue of People (via Westlaw):
"On July 4, 1979, Linda Kozlowski, ''dressed up like a Martian with a
tinfoil cone on my head,'' was hawking ''Skylab protective helmets'' to
crowds watching fireworks from Manhattan's West Side Highway. At $5 a
pop, she sold out her entire supply of the whimsical cardboard headgear.
None too soon, either. Seven days later Skylab -- the space station that
had begun losing altitude after six years in orbit -- finally fell to
earth. Perhaps Kozlowski has a shrewd eye for novelties."


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 11:22 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "tinfoil hat brigade"

On 2/1/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> FWIW, my first encounter with the phrase and concept "tinfoil hat" was

> within the past few years, possibly only since 2000.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.med/msg/384d892fe9f58773
sci.med, Nov 14 1991
Double blind tests are so tedious.  Why not try a magnet on one arm, a
copper bracelet on the other, a protective tin foil cap and a garlic
amulet around the neck.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.physics/msg/3ad66ecebb40502d
sci.physics, Oct 8 1992
Larry "I wear this tin-foil hat to protect myself from N-rays" Hammer

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.med/msg/452e0fa1c38f3626
sci.med, Dec 16 1992
>I recommend wearing a hat when you go out into the sun from now on.
Yes, and be sure to line it with tinfoil to keep out the cosmic rays.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.skeptic/msg/2e8fa5f7dadd24ae
sci.skeptic, Mar 10 1993
Hey, we've ALL got our own tin foil hats. If they aren't a filter for
"secret rays," they're a filter for perception, culture,  or taste.


--Ben Zimmer

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