This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

What about the *much* older, but, apparently still-used version, "Why
can't we ever have /keep nice things around here?" I have a busy day,
so I won't continue with this point till later, unless nobody cares.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 6:14 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (UNCLASSIFIED)
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> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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>
> Paula Poundstone in the Dallas paper (BEHIND THE LAUGHS - Comic Paula
> Poundstone is her own favorite target _The Dallas Morning News_ -
> Saturday, June 25, 1988 Author: Ken Perkins: p. 5C):
> "She was one of those angry moms that use to get mad at absolutely
> everything. I remember the time I knocked a Flintstone glass off the
> kitchen table, and she said, "Dammit, that's why we can't have nice
> things .""
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of Baker, John
>> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 2:15 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
>>
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>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
>>
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>>
>> Â  Â  Â  Â  How old is this meme? Â The earliest I see is from the Hartford
>> Courant, 2/10/1999, quoting Colin Quinn on Saturday Night Live the
>> previous week: Â "American warplanes attacked newly installed Iraqi
>> anti-ship missile launchers along the Persian Gulf. An enraged Saddam
>> Hussein scolded his troops saying, 'You see, this is why we can't have
>> nice things!'"
>>
>>
>> Â  Â  Â  Â  Anything earlier?
>>
>>
>> John Baker
>>
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