for catchphrase/snowclone fans

[George Thompson]

At 1967/8 my daughter used to say, "you can't trust anyone over 18 months" -- but then she sold out, herself, and accepted toilet training.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009 2:07 pm
Subject: for catchphrase/snowclone fans
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> from Ralph Keyes, _I Love It When You Talk Retro_ (NY: St. Martin's,
> 2008), p. 62:
>
> When the _San Francisco Chronicle_ send an older reporter to cover [a
> 1964 UC Berkeley protest], [24-year-old protestor] Jack Weinberg
> needled him by commenting, "We have a saying in the movement that you
> can't trust anyone over thirty." Weinberg himself made up the adage.
> It quickly became  a youth movement credo. As baby boomers got further
> and further away from their third decade of life, *You can't trust
> anyone* [underline] fill in the blank [end underline] became a
> multipurpose catchphrase.
> ....
>
> the Weinberg attribution is given in Keyes's 2006 book on quotations,
> and also in the Constitutional Rights Foundation's account of the Free
> Speech Movement:
>
> http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-16-3-a.html
>
> (Fred Shapiro: what do you have?  i'm away from this part of my
> library at the moment.)
>
> there are tons of hits for {"you can't trust anyone"}, but it's hard
> to tell which of these are literal assertions and which are echoes of
> the "over thirty" version. some examples:
>
> You Can't Trust Anyone In Law School
> You can't trust anyone nowadays
> You can't trust anyone in marketing
> Scientists, priests, you can't trust anyone anymore
> You can't trust anyone on house prices
> You Can't Trust Anyone In A Position Of Authority In The Bankruptcy Or
> Debt Consolidation Field!
> *I have always said you can't trust anyone under 30 for a long time.
> But 36 works equally well for me.
> Since we see problems with trust in every area, from families to banks
> to doctors, it shouldn't be surprising that you can't trust anyone in
> business.
> You can't trust anyone from TEH iNTERET!!
> You can't trust anyone here in touristy areas.
>   You can't trust anyone within prison and that is often rule number
> one.
>   i learned today you can't trust anyone over the phone, ...
>
> this is a sampling from the first 200 hits. not at all impressive. the
> asterisked one is the only clear echo of the 60s slogan, and it's just
> a slight variant.
>
> i'm beginning to wonder just how often the slogan actually got used by
> ordinary speakers, written on posters, etc., as opposed to being
> quoted in the media.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org