"outside of a dog"

[Garson O'Toole]

Excellent find! Here is a link to the joke in Boy's Life for convenience:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JpxKLVXpLdoC&q=of-a-dog#v=snippet&

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 11:35 PM, Baker, John M. <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John M." <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "outside of a dog"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Google Books has an earlier example of this, in full text, from Boys' =
> Life, p. 78 (Feb. 1954).  It's on the magazine's Think and Grin page, =
> which appears to be a collection of jokes sent in by readers (though I =
> don't see a specific invitation to readers to contribute).  The quip is =
> in more or less the canonical form:
> =20
>     A book is man's best friend=20
> outside of a dog, and inside of a
> dog it's too dark to read.--_Jim
> Brewer, Cleveland, O._
> =20
> =20
> If, as I suppose, this was submitted by one of the magazine's juvenile =
> readers (presumably Jim Brewer of Cleveland), then it is likely that he =
> heard it elsewhere, rather than making it up.  Be that as it may, Boys' =
> Life had a large circulation and is a plausible avenue for the phrase's =
> initial popularization.
> =20
> =20
> John Baker
> =20
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold Zwicky
> Sent: Sun 6/13/2010 10:47 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "outside of a dog"
>
>
>
> with citation of ADS-L, at the end of this posting on my blog:
>
> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/the-commencement-pun-crop/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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