Modern Proverb: Sacred cows make the best hamburger (antedating attrib Aardvark magazine 1965)

[Garson O'Toole]

Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

The earliest recorded citation for a close variant of this phrase is
1971. We present citations starting in 1965.

The Yale Book of Quotations, WikiQuote, and Bonnie Taylor have the
best information currently available about this saying I think. YBQ
notes that Abbie Hoffman is associated with the maxim and cites a New
York Times article dated 1989 April 20. The Times describes a memorial
service for Hoffman datelined the 19th with a Rabbi who presents the
quote ''Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger'' which is portrayed
as one of Mr. Hoffman's favorite sayings.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/20/us/mourning-and-celebrating-a-radical.html

YBQ also contains an earlier reference to a 1979 book of quotes that
associates Robert Reisner with the phrase: "Sacred cows make great
hamburgers."  WikiQuote notes that Robert Reisner and Lorraine
Wechsler published the volume Encyclopedia of Graffiti in 1974 and it
contains the saying. Bonnie Taylor found "Sacred cows make good
hamburger" in a cite dated 1971.

Further below we present a 1968 Time magazine article that depicts
Reisner and his students collecting samples of graffiti. The graffito
"Sacred cows make great hamburger" is described as a recent student
find. Hamburger is singular here although it is plural in Reisner's
later Encyclopedia of Graffiti.

Our first instance of the saying does not refer to graffiti, Robert
Reisner, or Abbie Hoffman. In 1965 students at Penn State planned to
revive a humor magazine called 'Bottom of the Birdcage' with
inspiration from another magazine called Aardvark.

Citation: 1965 October 19, The Daily Collegian, Ad Hoc Resurrects
'Bottom of Birdcage', Page 4, Column 6, Pennsylvania State University
student paper. (Google News Archive, ActivePaper Archive full view)

Birdcage's newly-adopted theme, borrowed from Aardvark magazine, is
"Sacred cows make the best hamburger." Each issue will have something
to offend each member of the family.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q="borrowed+from+Aardvark+magazine"&

I do not know much about Aardvark magazine. Prominent children's book
author Shel Silverstein gave an interview to a magazine called
Aardvark. A webpage gives this description: Aardvark "was the college
humor mag at Roosevelt  University--but when the administration saw
the first issue, they took away any official sanction of the mag, and
forced [them] to publish off-campus."

http://shelsilverstein.tripod.com/aardvark.html


Our second citation is from the same source and concerns the same topic.

Citation: 1965 November 13, The Daily Collegian, A Lesson in Humor,
Page 2, Column 1, Pennsylvania State University student paper. (Google
News Archive, ActivePaper Archive full view)

Yes, the almost defunct Bottom of the Bird Cage was reborn again
yesterday, true as ever to its policy that "sacred cows make the best
hamburger."

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q="policy+that+sacred+cows"&


In this third citation the saying is called "an old newspaper adage."

Citation: 1968 January 25, Lowell Sun, Headliners, Page 12, Column 1,
Lowell, Massachusetts. (NewspaperArchive)

Princess Radziwell as "Laura" was, in the opinion of "Briefly"
magnificent on TV last night. All the critics, of course, will pan
her. It's understandable. An old newspaper adage says "Sacred cows
make the best hamburger." Lee Bouvier is Jackie Kennedy's sister and
she has to pay the penalty.


In 1968 an article in Time magazine followed a class taught by author
Robert Reisner as participants collected graffiti from lavatory walls.
The next three cites present the saying as a graffito.

Citation: 1968 November 15, Time, Curriculum: Handwriting on the Wall,
Time, Inc. (Online Time Archive)

Classes begin with students presenting their homework—arresting
specimens of graffiti that they have collected during the week. Among
recent, and printable, student finds: "Life is a hereditary disease,"
found at the Princeton University student center; "Sacred cows make
great hamburger," from an East Side cafe.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723866,00.html


Citation: 1969 February 14, Ada Evening News, Journalists? by Ernest
Thompson, Page 6, Column 1, Ada, Oklahoma.  (NewspaperArchive)

Recently, our main thrust has been in the area of graffiti. Here are
some samples:
"Sleeping Beauty took Sominex"
"Lassie eats chickens"
"Sacred cows make great hamburgers."


Citation: 1969 August 29, Lowell Sun, Graffiti lives and has since
Rome was built, Page 26, Column 1, Lowell, Massachusetts.
(NewspaperArchive)

The best humorous graffiti take a droll look at modern society and its
hang-ups. An urban pessimist wrote "Chicken Little was right" on a
pillar of a New York subway, for example. "Sacred cows make great
hamburger" is not only a prime slice of wall-writing, it's a kind of
manifesto of graffiti-dom.


Next we present a precursor citation for the saying. The notion of
using the meat of metaphorical sacred cows for hamburgers is mentioned
in the sports pages of the Chicago Tribune in 1940. The citation does
not say that hamburgers generated in this manner would be the best or
the tastiest. So this text is thematically linked to the saying under
investigation but has a different meaning. This cite was found by
Bonnie Taylor and mentioned on a forum at the Snopes website.

Citation: 1940 September 29, Chicago Tribune, White Sox, Cubs Open 23d
City Series Tuesday by Irving Vaughan, Page B5, Chicago, Illinois.
(Proquest Historical Newspapers)

It is almost generally conceded that the Cubs made a 100 per cent mess
of their National league affairs this year. By the series of brilliant
trades for which they have become so noted, by the nursing of sacred
cows on which there isn't enough healthy meat to make up a five cent
hamburger, and by all around smugness, the Cubs have deteriorated to
such an extent that a good portion of the National league seems to
have gone away and left them.

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=101;t=000381;p=0

The link immediately above goes to a forum on the Snopes website where
Bonnie Taylor presents several interesting cites for the saying
including the 1940 precursor, a 1967 precursor, and a 1971 cite.


Another precursor appears in the first half of the 1960s. This cite is
closer to the target saying because the metaphor is extended to
"better hamburger".

Citation: Circa 1960 to 1965, College Board Review, Page 24, Issues
40-51, College Entrance Examination Board . (Google snippet view only.
Not verified on paper. Date uncertain.)

One mustn't butcher old sacred cows, however, without at least
offering a better hamburger. So I have a modest set of recommendations
for both ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=SMAVAAAAIAAJ&q=sacred+cows#search_anchor

Garson O'Toole

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