Blend: "don't have the first clue about..."

[Garson O'Toole]

 Gerald Cohen wrote:
> For those interested in syntactic blends, here's one I just noticed:
> "Unfortunately, too many people in this business think they're professionals when they don't have the first clue about the trade."
> http://www.doityourself.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-204743.html
>      The blend "don't have the first clue about" derives from ""don't have a clue about" and "don't know the first thing about."

Here is a version of the blend in 1958 that includes the word "even".

Cite 1958 April 26, Milwaukee Journal, The Three-time Losers by George
Bagby, Page 3, (GNA Page 13), Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News
Archive)

He would just have asked me what I was going to do and he would have
like me to have some ideas at least, even if they were wrong ones. I
didn't even have the first clue.

Garson

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