"tinfoil hat brigade"

[James Smith]

My late father-in-law told of shipmates who, just
after WWII, would line their scivies with lead foil,
recovered from cigarette packs, to protect their
future reproductive rights from the effects of atomic
fallout.  I don't know if cigarettes packs actually
contained lead foil back in those days or if anyone
actually did the asserted lining, but it always made a
good story.



--- "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

> Might the notion of "tinfoil hat" (not necessarily
> the phrase itself)
> go back to the 1947 Roswell "UFO crash"?  The
> retrieved object was
> described as "tin-foil covered."  Also, (as AM
> wrote; see also Doug
> Wilson), my recollection is of "the foil's capacity
> to ward off
> endangering rays of some sort" and perhaps earlier
> than 1983.
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >FWIW, I've never seen anyone wearing a tinfoil hat.
>
> Except in a movie?  I have no idea which, but if so
> it might be
> earlier than 1983.
>
> Joel
>
> At 2/1/2006 12:22 PM, you wrote:
> >         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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> http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
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>

James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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