Who coined "irony deficiency"?

[George Thompson]

> If not the coiner, we have the etymology!  From tired blood -- not
> enough iron in it.
>
> Joel
>

Those of us old enough to remember when the masters of television thought that the ideal audience consisted of 60-year-olds, not 20-year-olds, will remember Geritol, which cured "Iron Deficiency Anemia, but we call it Tired Blood".

GAT

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Date: Friday, January 22, 2010 9:49 am
Subject: Re: Who coined "irony deficiency"?
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> If not the coiner, we have the etymology!  From tired blood -- not
> enough iron in it.
>
> Joel
>
> At 1/22/2010 01:22 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> >Google News Archive displays a snippet from a 1961 review of a vampire
> >film titled "Black Sunday". The Los Angeles Times article remarks on
> >"tired blood" and then mentions "irony deficiency in the scenarists".
> >
> >'Black Sunday' Unfair to Organized Vampires
> >Los Angeles Times - ProQuest Archiver - Apr 21, 1961
> >The problem In "Black Sunday" may be just tired blood on the part of
> >the un-dead or, perhaps, an irony deficiency in the scenarists. But
> >whatever it is, ...
> >
> >Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File) - Los Angeles, Calif.
> >Author: CHARLES STINSON
> >Date: Apr 21, 1961
> >Start Page: 24  Pages: 1  Text Word Count: 534
> >
> >Abstract (Document Summary)
> >In American-International's "Black Sunday," things are going from
> >unbearable to worse. Now back in Carpathia and Transylvania, when the
> >Count Dracula was head of the organization, being a successful vampire
> >was...
> >
> >I cannot verify this cite because I do not have access to the ProQuest
> >Archive. The 1961 date is plausible because the 1960 Italian vampire
> >film Black Sunday (La Maschera del Demonio) was released in the right
> >time frame by American International Pictures. So maybe Charles
> >Stinson coined the phrase or propagated it.
> >
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_%281960_film%29
> >
> >Garson
> >
> >
> >On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      Who coined "irony deficiency"?
> > >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > I first heard (and thought very clever) "irony deficiency" a couple
> > > of days ago on NPR.  A British writer was criticizing Americans
> > > generally for this syndrome.   But it appears to be wide-spread (I
> > > guess I haven't been listening).  A quick Google Books search
> > > produces a use back to 1977.  Snippet view, in "Canada writes!: the
> > > members' book of the Writers' Union of Canada - Page 146; K. A.
> > > Hamilton, Writers' Union of Canada - Biography & Autobiography - 1977
> > > - 399 pages":
> > >
> > > "... discoverer of irony-deficiency, also known as the Canlit
> > > Malaise, and its cure, transcendental medication. His one-phrase
> > > reviews, Un-stable Boy (Equus) ..."
> > >
> > > (It seems to be known as "the Canlit Malaise" only here -- I do not
> > > find that phrase anywhere else in Google or Google Books, but its
> > > meaning seems self-evident.)
> > >
> > > Is the coiner of "irony deficiency" known?
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
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>
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