Q: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."

[Garson O'Toole]

Laurence Horn wrote:
> And in Nov. 2006 I mentioned recalling the existence of a poem that
> included both these lines, but being unable to locate said poem on
> the web.  This is still the case.

During my search I did locate a poem in a 1971 article. The poem does
not contain the exact line "Fruit flies like a banana", but it plays
with the default semantics of terms, and it does contain "fruit flies"
and "bananas". The date given for the poem is 1966:

# Time Flies Like an Arrow
# J. A. Barnes
# Man, New Series, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 1971), pp. 537-552
# Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
# Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2799182

Now, thin fruit flies like thunderstorms,
And thin farm boys like farm girls narrow;
And tax firm men like fat tax forms –
But time flies like an arrow!

When tax forms tax all firm men's souls,
While farm girls slim their boyfriends' flanks;
That's when the murd'rous thunder rolls –
And thins the fruit flies ranks.

Like tossed bananas in the skies,
The thin fruit flies like common yarrow;
Then's the time to time the time flies –
Like the time flies like an arrow.
                                             (Schroeder 1966)

(Errors may have been introduced during retyping)

Garson

Below is a message from the ADS archive dated 2006 November 12
Subject:         Re: Time Flies Like an Arrow, Fruit Flies Like a Banana
From:   Laurence Horn <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To:       American Dialect Society <[log in to unmask]>
Date:   Sun, 12 Nov 2006 13:49:18 -0500

I remember it from the mid-sixties too, and indeed in the context of
a poem of which the last (punch)line is "Time flies like an arrow".
Does anyone else remember or figure out how to access that poem?  It
was popular around ling. departments at the time, but since none of
us had computers, there are no copies.

LH



On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 3:12 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Q: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2:22 PM -0400 6/1/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>Having now recalled that this has been discussed before (in Nov.
>>2006), I find in the (ADS-L) archives that I wrote nearly the same
>>information then.  I suggested someone ask Oettinger.  No-one
>>reported back that they had.
>>
>>Joel
>
> And in Nov. 2006 I mentioned recalling the existence of a poem that
> included both these lines, but being unable to locate said poem on
> the web.  This is still the case.  I was able to confirm, however,
> that the observation that time flies like an arrow and fruit flies
> like a banana was made by Mark Twain and Groucho Marx.
> Independently, I presume, although you never know.  And inside of a
> dog, those fruit flies are too dark to see.
>
> LH
>
>>
>>At 6/1/2010 01:57 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>At 6/1/2010 12:18 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>>>I think that the teaching materials at the Harvard University Archives
>>>>are a good location to look for an antedating as you suggest.
>>>
>>>Oh dear.  And I suppose I'm targeted because I took Oettinger's
>>>class.  Perhaps I can get excused if I claim I didn't actually see
>>>the adage until the 1966 Scientific American article.  Fred, do you
>>>have a paid flunky with access to the Harvard Archives?
>>>
>>>Joel
>>>
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>>
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>
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