Quote: the toast of two continents (antedating Dorothy Parker variant 1956 October 15)

[Jonathan Lighter]

FWIW, Parker must have known that Greenland isn't a continent. Besides,
being the toast of Australia, while not quite the same as Europe and North
America, would not be nearly as funny as Greenland, if Greenland were a
continent.

"Asia and Africa" is funny (or used to be) because of the default assumption
that they were inhabited entirely by lustful primitives, peasants, and
warlords.

Sounds to me like the G & A version is _faux_ Parker.

JL




On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 3:54 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Quote: the toast of two continents (antedating Dorothy Parker
>              variant 1956 October 15)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The challenge is to antedate the 1970 date for the following Dorothy
> Parker quotation:
>
> I was the toast of two continents: Greenland and Australia.
>
>
> Here is a variant attributed to Parker in 1956. The quote certainly
> improved over a period of fourteen years.
>
> 1956 October 15, Reading Eagle, The Lyons Den by Leonard Lyons, Page
> 6, Reading, Pennsylvania. (Google News archive)
>
> Dorothy Parker said: "I once was the toast of two continents — Asia and
> Africa."
>
> Garson
>
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