"thousand-yard stare" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

The appearance - in big print - in Harper's must have helped assure the
term's permamence.

JL

On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "thousand-yard stare" (UNCLASSIFIED)
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> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      "thousand-yard stare"
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> > >
> > > Should the OED add "thousand-yard stare"?  Wikipedia's article of
> > > that name dates it to the title of a Life Magazine painting in 1944
> > > (although that used "2,000").  Google Books gives about 57 results
> > > before 1951, all snippets, and some journals and so needing
> > verification.
> > >
> > >
>
>
> Wikipedia was wrong (surprise!).  Tom Lea's painting appears in the June
> 11 1945 issue of Life:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=_EkEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA61&dq=%22tom%20lea%2
> 2&as_pt=MAGAZINES&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false
>
> and is not titled there.   I've tried to straighten up the wiki a
> little, but it would take a bigger re-write than I will do to really fix
> it.
>
>
> Legit 1944 cites:
>
> [no author given; interview with George E. Jones, UP war correspondent]
> "War Reporter Home to Rest,"_Oregonian_ [Portland OR] 4/6/1944 p 9 col 2
> "And they have that 'thousand-yard stare' a look of utter fatigue, as if
> somebody had placed a film over their eyes."
>
> Hansford Martin, "Thousand-yard stare"  [short story] _Harper's
> Magazine_ v. 189 (November 1944) p. 523-8
>
>
>
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