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

[Charles C Doyle]

There do exist variants in which "Antarctica" occurs in place of "Greenland" (or in place of "Australia").

Chalrie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 10:57 AM
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At 9:14 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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.

Well, we do have independent evidence of her bibulosity, so maybe
when she referred to Australia she was thinking of Antarctica. Inter
alia, those penguins are already wearing tuxedos, so they're all set
up for a toast.

LH

>;
>"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
>
>

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