"Happiness is . . ."

[Jonathan Lighter]

I thought I sent this, but my computer says otherwise:

  I was shockedshocked to encounter the "...Warm Pussy" version in 1967 or '68.  IIRC it was on a plastic novelty button for sale near Times Square.

  Charles M. Schulz was known as a very mild-mannered, spiritually inclined person who sometimes taught Sunday school. It's impossible for me to imagine that he would knowingly have punned on an existing sexual saying in the title of his 1962 book. And if he'd tried, his publishers would have stopped him.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: "Happiness is . . ."
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When I first encountered the caption/book-title "Happiness Is a Warm Puppy" in the early 1960s, I assumed that the usually-decorous Charles Schulz was parodying--therefore bawdily alluding to--the expression "happiness is a warm pussy," which I was familiar with. When the Beatles' "White Album" appeared in 1968, with the song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun," I didn't know which older expression was the prototype (maybe both).

Now, I can't discover much of an early record of the saying "Happiness is a warm pussy." It can be found in Elting, Cragg, and Deal's _Dictionary of Soldier Talk_ (1984; s.v. "prosign," p. 241), among expressions from WW2 and later wars, but without a date.

Any recollections or documentation?

--Charlie

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