more fan-hitting

[Mark Mandel]

InDEED! Wilson, I would like to see the whole joke.

Roger Zelazny's classic _Lord of Light_ has an episode, perhaps a
whole chapter in length, which is integral to the plot, but which is
*also* a long shaggy-dog story involving a nobleman called the Shan of
Irabek and leading up to the line "Then the fit hit the Shan."

(Zelazny kept doing this kind of thing. In _Nine Princes in Amber_
there's another tale involving disgusting habits and leading up to
"There once was a hermit named Dave..." That tale ends there, with the
reader shuddering and groaning.)

m a m


On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 9:16 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> How long has "shit hit the fan" been around? Ca.1953-55 in Saint
> Louis, there was a joking pun? / punning joke? whose punchline was,
>
> "Blessings on thee, little man!
> "Where wert thou when the fit hit the shan?"
>
> I heard the pun *before* I heard the actual expression, so that I had
> to have the point of the pun explained to me and, even then, I had to
> study over it awhile. I couldn't easily picture how it would come
> about that shit would be hitting a fan.
>
> -Wilson

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