Village's missing idiot

[Kevin Birge]

I remember having a T-shirt I purchased while I was in Language school in
1980 that said "Somewhere, a village is missing its idiot."   I also had one
that said "Nuke the Whales"  There really is no humor like T-shirt humor.

Kevin

On 2/9/07, Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Village's missing idiot
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks for the info, I was curious if it predated Bush. Seems it did, but
> not by much. I didn't find any earlier hits on ProQuest and LexisNexis.
>
> Scot
>
>
> >From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >Subject: Village's missing idiot
> >Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 13:18:10 -0500
> >
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >Subject:      Village's missing idiot
>
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >While many of us relate the saying "Somewhere in Texas a village is
> missing
> >its idiot" specifically with the current president, and it may have been
> an
> >Ivinsism from Shrub's gubernatorial days, the core of the expression has
> >entered popular currency as an insult of wider application.
> >
> >As early as 31 July 1997, a quotation appeared in the _Pittsburg Post
> >Gazette_: "'Somewhere in the world, there are two villages missing their
> >idiots,' one police officer theorized."
> >
> >A letter-to-the-editor of the _Arkansas Democrat-Gazette_ for 1 December
> >2000 declared, "I can't but wonder that (sic) somewhere in this great
> state
> >of Arkansas, some village is missing its idiot." The reference,
> improbably,
> >is Bill Clinton!
> >
> >A good many other instances of the proverb used in non-W'istical
> >applications can be rounded up from Lexis-Nexis and Google.
> >
> >--Charlie
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