Antedatings in the Yale Book of Quotations

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Fred -- perhaps you could bring us up to date on this one . . . .


>Date:         Mon, 19 Mar 2001 09:56:05 -0500
>Reply-To:     American Dialect Society <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender:       American Dialect Society Mailing List <[log in to
unmask]>
>From:         Fred Shapiro <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Murphy's Law in 1941
>Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
>In-Reply-To:  <[log in to unmask]>
>
>I hope the "tease" aspect of this posting does not outweigh its
>informational value.
>
>In the course of doing research for the forthcoming Yale Dictionary of
>Quotations, I have come across a version of Murphy's Law (the proverb
>itself, not the name "Murphy's Law") dated 1941.  It is not from an
>aviation or engineering context.  Because I don't want Bartlett's or
the
>Oxford Dictionary of Quotations to get this before my book is published
>(it's very unlikely Bartlett's would pick it up from ADS-L, but
possible
>that ODQ would), I regret that I cannot give details at this time.
>
>Fred Shapiro

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