more "X sucks" (1967)

[Ben Zimmer]

Following up on our latest round of "X sucks" exegesis, I wanted to
share a couple of early cites I dug up recently. In 2009, I found two
cites from the Village Voice, appearing in Aug. and Dec. 1967:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0908A&L=ADS-L&P=R4945

The Google News Archive holdings for the Voice must have expanded a
bit since then, since a search now finds two earlier cites from '67 --
both referring to catchphrases appearing on buttons. The first one
describes a street scene on Christmas Eve 1966:

---
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jQNOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KYwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2360,38102
The Village Voice, Jan. 5, 1967, p. 10, col. 1 “Scenes”
The Button Store must have made their bundle early because they closed
before midnight. This left one frozen youth standing in the blizzard
with icicles hanging off his rock 'n' roll hair. 'Dammit! I wanted to
get a 'Santa Sucks' button!" On his epauletted Billy Baxter pea jacket
he was already wearing a button that said, "Santa Claus is a junkie
from the North Pole."
---

And the second one is an ad for store selling buttons, two of which
had "sucks" slogans on them:

---
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nwNOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KYwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7076,3204796
The Village Voice, June 29, 1967, p. 19 (advt.)
The Belly Button Company is proud to present its superior collection
of better buttons.
...
IT SUCKS
...
DRACULA SUCKS
...
The Belly Button Company, 13 St. Marks Place, N.Y., N.Y. 10003
---

Plain-old "it sucks" is notable here, as I believe this is the
earliest known example of that pithy formation. But "Dracula sucks" is
also interesting, as one of a stable of double entendres on the
"sucks" theme. In the past we've discussed the graffito "There is no
gravity. The universe sucks!", which Wilson recalls from 1960 and Ron
from 1968:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510C&L=ADS-L&P=R7202

(The other offerings listed by the Belly Button Co. are worth checking
out for various hippie-isms.)

Google News Archive still hasn't made available any of the Voice
issues from the all-important year of 1966. I'm sure we'll find more
"X sucks" when that happens.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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