"out like Flout"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The precise antonym of "in like Flynn."  From billions of Web pages indexed, Google spits out precisely eight examples.

  None of those responsible for the eight examples seems likely to have read Mackinlay Kantor's blank-verse epic, _Glory for Me_ (N.Y.: Coward-McCann, 1945). This was the direct source of the film _The Best Years of Our Lives_ (1946).

  P. 7: "By God!.../ I'm in like Flynn!"  P. 56: "The point is: as a wife, / You're out like Flout, Marie!"

  "Out like Flout" doesn't occur in the movie. A lifespan of more than sixty years for such a feeble specimen of wit is a challenge to reason itself.

  JL


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