"crash blossoms" redux

[Sam Clements]

Being a bit older than Ben, I remember that line in his very good article in
the NYTimes today--the one about the telegram from an editor.  But I
remember reading it before the Time piece in 1962 using Cary Grant as the
subject.

The old joke went "How old Gar Wood?"  and the answer was "Old Gar Wood
fine, how you?"

It can be found as early as 1957 using Newspaperarchive.

14 December 1957, Anniston(AL) Star, 2/2

Sam Clements

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 10:00
Subject: "crash blossoms" redux


> Nice piece by Ben for the Times "On Language" column today...
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31FOB-onlanguage-t.html
> ...but I notice credit for the "gem" (datum provided by my colleague
> Steve Anderson) has been reassigned from ADS-L--
>
> =================
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0909D&L=ads-l&P=R1201
>
> Subject:         Crash blossom of the week
> From:   Laurence Horn <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <[log in to unmask]>
> Date:   Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:00:31 -0400
>
> Courtesy of my colleague Steve Anderson:
> "McDonald's fries the holy grail for potato farmers"
> http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/09/23/D9ASV9F80_us_spud_stud/index.html
>
> LH
> =================
>
> --to Language Log.
>
> The appearance in LL was a bit later in the day, literally, although
> granted it comes with the original AP piece and a photo of some of
> the fried grail in question:
>
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1762
>
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org