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

[Shapiro, Fred]

Actually, it's Woollcott, not Woolcott.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of victor steinbok [aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 5:52 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Quote: [Remark on death of Calvin Coolidge] How can they              tell? (antedating Dorothy Parker 1936)

That's Woolcott, not Wolcott.

A couple of places (1939, 1946) have "If all your lovers were laid end
to end, I'd be very much pleased." This is a very different version of
the joke. But I am having a hard time getting full info.

VS-)

On 7/18/10, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a link to 1949 (apparently) Commonweal with the requisite Vassar
> version:
>
>> But Larry was reminded of something again, this time of what Dorothy
>> Parker had said when she said, If all the Vassar girls at the Yale Prom
>> were laid end to end I wouldn't be surprised!
>
> http://bit.ly/a4Cc8Y
>
> No antedating of Wolcott's version (or any other, for that matter).
>
> VS-)
>
> On 7/17/10, Dan Goodman <dsgood at iphouse.com> wrote:
>
>>> Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>>...
>>> antedate 1934:
>>> That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say no in any of them.
>>> 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.
>>>...
>>
>> To the best of my memory, I've only seen that as "If all the Vassar
>> girls....."
>>
>> Dan Goodman
>

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