Anon. quote: "Any day above ground..."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Well, preternaturally indirectly maybe....

JL

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 4:32 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Anon. quote: "Any day above ground..."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tom Snyder's grandmother and the bumper sticker makers may have been
> preternaturally influenced by the following poem, "Life is a Ladder",
> from October 1895:
>
> Life is called a ladder
> Which we climb round by round,
> We should step up higher,
> Each day above the ground.
>
> Each noble deed we do,
> Each kind word we say,
> Each trouble we pass through,
> Is a step upon the way.
>
> Citation: Primary Education, Volume 3, Page 290, Educational Pub. Co.,
> 1895.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=-tMBAAAAYAAJ&q=%22day+above%22#v=snippet&q=%22day%20above%22&f=false
>
> On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 1:31 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Anon. quote: "Any day above ground..."
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > That is, Snyder "conducted" what was known in olden times as "a rap
> session."
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: Anon. quote: "Any day above ground..."
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> NewspaperArchive reveals:
> >>
> >> 1973 _The Transcript_ (North Adams, Mass.) (Sept. 29) TV Guide 9:  I
> guess I
> >> can attribute my ability to enjoy life to the philosophy of my
> grandmother:
> >> "Each day above ground is a good day."
> >>
> >> Speaker?  Tom Snyder, "newsman, interviewer, and host, who will be
> rapping
> >> with persons from 1 to 2 a.m. each Tuesday through Friday as host of NBC
> >> Television Network's new talk show, 'Tomorrow,' premiering Oct. 26..."
> >>
> >> ("Rapping with persons," not "rapping to the beat.")
> >>
> >> JL
> >> On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >>
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> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject:      Anon. quote: "Any day above ground..."
> >>>
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Google finds many thousands of refs. to "Any day above ground is a good
> >>> day."
> >>>
> >>> GB turns up a 1986 ex. citing a bumper sticker.  I don't recall the
> >>> sticker,
> >>> but that's around the time I began to say it.
> >>>
> >>> JL
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> >>> Platypus"
> >>>
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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> >> Platypus"
> >>
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> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -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
> >
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> >
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-- 
"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
Platypus"

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