a deadly game of cat and mouse

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hearing this cliche' on TV for the nth and final time I can stand it just
now, I decided to look into the problem.

The earliest I could come up with was in Michael O'Malley & Ralph Lane's
"Vic Flint"  strip in the _Clovis (N.M.) News-Journal_ of July 11, 1948 (via
Newspaper Archive): "Inside the Crystal Lake Amusement Park a deadly game of
cat and mouse was in progress."

It seems to have taken off almost instantly, though high-class periodicals
like the N.Y. Times were slow on the uptake.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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