Quote: If you want something very, very badly, let it go free (1972 edition question)

[Jonathan Lighter]

>
"If you love something, let it go.
If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it."

Precisely the version I saw, among many others of a similar bent, in a
T-shirt display in a Manhattan shop window in 1983 or '84. The other that
sticks in my mind (also subsequently famous) is "Age and treachery will
always defeat youth and skill."

(A more accurate version, of course, would begin, "Youth and treachery...")

JL
On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 2:45 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: If you want something very, very badly, let it go
> free
>              (1972 edition question)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Laurence Horn:
> > The black sheep of the family:
> > http://www.zazzle.com/set_it_free_shirt-235601941430118526
>
> Yes, the saying is a target for parody. For the benefit of the ADS
> search engine here is the text on the shirt available at zazzle.com
> that LH pointed to:
>
> If you hate something, set it free.
> If it comes back to you, shoot it.
>
> The most common parody version was presented by Fred in YBQ and on the
> Freakonomics blog, undated. Here is an instance of that controversial
> take off dated 1983 from Usenet:
>
> Newsgroups: net.singles
> From: c... at csin.UUCP (Chip Hitchcock)
> Date: Mon, 7-Nov-83 13:47:22 EST
> Local: Mon, Nov 7 1983 2:47 pm
> Subject: recent discussions
>
> "If you love something, let it go.
> If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it."
>
> (This is a button which circulates around SF conventions primarily as a
> joke;
> unfortunately, some people are into such head games that they take it
> seriously.)
>
> http://groups.google.com/g/ac67fed8/t/43c1676b031226ee/d/a7698c21a478e236
>
>
> In May 1984 the editors of Mother Jones wrote in response to a
> critical letter that they would ban the parody text (in an
> advertisement) from appearance in the magazine. But the advertisement
> ran in the June and July issues. So there may have been
> miscommunication or a delay.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=yOYDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22kill+it%22#v=snippet&
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org