Quote: [Remark on death of Calvin Coolidge] How can they tell? (antedating Dorothy Parker 1936)

[Garson O'Toole]

Fred Shapiro
> Are you (or anyone else on this list) able to antedate any of the following first known occurrences for Parkerisms:
>
> antedate 1934:
> That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say no in any of them.

Excellent list of quotes. I will spend some time on it later. Here is
a start. The same joked phrased differently in 1931:

1931 September 8,
Chicago Daily Tribune
A Line O' Type Or Two
Page 12
Chicago, Illinois.
(ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

WINIFRED STACKVILLE STONER II, now
twenty-nine and who is reported in the public
press as having just left her third, was renowned
at the age of six, when she wrote a book, as a
child genius. And a few years later, with her
hair still in pigtails, it was proudly proclaimed that
Winifred could speak twelve languages. But
apparently Winifred never learned to say "No" in
any of them and hiked up to the altar as fast as
anybody suggested the idea.

(Errors during retyping are likely)

Garson



> And there was that wholesale libel on a Yale prom.  If all the girls attending it were laid end to end, Mrs. Parker said, she wouldn't be at all surprised.
> The poor lady had injured herselr while sliding down a barrister.
>
> antedate 1944:
> One more drink and I'd have been under the host.
>
> antedate 1968:
> You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think.
> There, but for a typographical error, is the story of my life. [re "ducking for apples"]
> This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly.  It should be thrown with great force.
>
> antedate 1970:
> Tell him I've been too fucking busy -- or vice versa.
> I was the toast of two continents: Greenland and Australia.
> It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.
>
> antedate 1988:
> What fresh hell is this?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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