"Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated" antedated to 1931

[Stephen Goranson]

Oops! Sorry-- I thought I had checked the archives. I see that, in some versions, the headline is putatively recalled as "...Continent Cut Off."
Now, I do not claim that a misreading or misrecalling or play on the following Times headline  is *necessarily* a source of the legend, but, for what it is worth::

The Times, Thursday, Mar 09, 1922; pg. 12; Issue 42975; col G
     Great Gale. Wind Blowing At 108 Miles An Hour., England Cut Off From The Continent.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Bonnie Taylor-Blake [taylor-blake at NC.RR.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 9:26 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated"              antedated to 1931


A couple years ago I went looking for the variant involving "channel
storm[s]"/"continent isolated" and found a couple instances that also date
to 1931.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0707C&L=ADS-L&P=R11162

I haven't looked since my initial search, but it might be worthwhile -- in
the interest of tracking down an origin for the general anecdote -- to throw
"channel storm[s]" in with ones search parameters.

-- Bonnie

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