The things you learn on the OED [was: NPR]

[Jonathan Lighter]

Though an American by birth, Liebling, as a prominent war correspondent, was
definitely a transponder.

JL

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 9:51 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: The things you learn on the OED [was: NPR]
>
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>
> At 12:09 AM -0400 9/2/10, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> >Joel S. Berson wrote
> >>  Apparently known from 1945, before post-war inflation.  The authority
> >>  (pace Wilson) says:
> >>
> >>  With allusion to the (former) price of admission to public toilets.
> >>  1945 H. LEWIS Strange Story iv. 27 'Us girls,' she said, 'are going
> >>  to spend a penny!' [And so on.]
> >
> >An instance of the expression crossed the pond quickly. Journalist A.
> >J. Liebling used it in a New Yorker short story also in 1945. It was
> >collected in The Best American Short Stories 1946, ed. Martha Foley.
> >
> >1945 September 29, The New Yorker, "Run, Run, Run, Run" by A. J.
> >Liebling, Page 24, Column 2, F-R Pub. Corp.
> >
> >"Brownie got a brushoff from a society dame at a bottle club in
> >London," Barry said. "She said she was going to spend a penny and she
> >never came back. He's been a militant proletarian ever since."
> >
>
> But note the locale of the incident in question.  Still seems
> relevantly transpondic rather than cispondic to me.  Presumably
> Brownie, if not British herself, was tailoring her utterance to her
> audience.
>
> LH
>
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