Quote: wheel that squeaks the loudest ... gets the grease (Cal Stewart as Josh Weathersby 1903)

[Jonathan Lighter]

I love it when stuff clearly mutates from the distant past while somehow
retaining its essential identity and vitality. Kind of like me, now that I
think about it.

JL

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 6:23 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: wheel that squeaks the loudest ... gets the grease
>              (Cal Stewart as Josh Weathersby 1903)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > A guest on CNN a day or so ago remarked in a similar vein, "As
> > my grandmother used to say, 'The closed mouth doesn't get fed.'"
>
> Thanks for your response, Jon. Here is an instance of the saying you
> mention in 1989. Admittedly, this may be years after the grandmother
> of the CNN guest deployed the expression.
>
> Cite: 1989 January 8, Sun-Sentinel, "Ignore Regular Season, Road
> Warriors to Win" by Bob Hill, Page 8C, [South Florida], Fort
> Lauderdale, Florida. (NewsBank)
>
> Florida State defensive back and probable top-five selection Deion
> Sanders on why he talks so much: "Because I feel a closed mouth never
> gets fed."
>
>
> Of course, sometimes it is better not to be fed.
>
> Cite: 1972 May 26, Owosso Argus-Press, Dear Abby: Advertisers: Pick Up
> The Cue, Page 5 [GNArchive Page 3], Owosso, Michigan. (Google News
> archive)
>
> CONFIDENTIAL TO "BEAUCOUP SORRY" IN NEW ORLEANS: A shut mouth never
> has to eat crow. [QUOTE MAGAZINE]
>
>
> The online Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has a distinct proverb that
> it dates to "late 16th century":
>
> 818. A shut mouth catches no flies.
>
> The meaning of this maxim and the first one may converge in the realm of
> frogs.
>
> Garson
>
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