Another new old saying

[Baker, John]

Dates back at least to 1991, http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606A&L=ADS-L&P=R2115, popularized in 1993, http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606A&L=ADS-L&P=R2268.
 
I daresay that people who have long-term leases wash their cars regularly, so the aphorism doesn't prove as much as it pretends to.
 
 
John Baker
 

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sun 1/17/2010 5:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Another new old saying



Eliot Spitzer on CNN today:   "Somebody once said, 'Nobody washes their
rental car.' Ownership is good."

GB alleges one of its 30+ hits to be from 1991, but the earliest I can
verify is:

1998 Rajan Suri _Quick Response Manufacturing_ (Portland, Ore.:
Productivity): A union leader at United echoed the sentiment, "No one washes
a rental car." In other words, you take care of what you own.

Haven't checked elsewhere.  30,000 Raw Goolits.

JL

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