"The butler did it" (was Re: [ADS-L] Google Answers is dead--Barry?)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Correct. Infuriating, isn't it ?

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: "The butler did it" (was Re: [ADS-L] Google Answers is
dead--Barry?)
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Citing (even quoting from) items in serials, doesn't Google Books usually give for the "date" the year in the which the serial commenced? (For example, all quotations from _Poetry Magazine_, no matter what volume or issue, are dated "1912.")

--Charlie
__________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:54:30 -0500
>From: Stephen Goranson
>Subject: "The butler did it" (was Re: [ADS-L] Google Answers is dead--Barry?)
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>
>Fred, I'm not claiming this is earlier, because I haven't checked the date with a paper copy, but, in case it's of interest, google-books claims a 1912 use. That, by itself, counts for little, because it's in a serial (and g-bks often
errs with dating them), but WorldCat says the title ran from 1909 to 1932: The Dramatist. Luther B Anthony 1909-1932 English Serial Publication : Periodical : Quarterly (every 3 months) v. ; 24 cm. Easton, Pa. : [Dramatist Co.],
>
>google bk:
>The Dramatist, a Journal of Dramatic Technology edited by Luther B. Anthony p.1277 "1912"
>
>
>Problem
>1. A girl thinks she committed murder.
>2. A fake psychic exempts her.
>3. He proves the butler did it. Here is the fat part
>any actor might be expected to elect. In order to project this drunken [...]
>
>Stephen

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