"a nice girl like you"

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:00 PM -0500 6/25/11, Dave Hause wrote:
>Of course, there's also the cavity-finding dentist's inversion, "What's a
>place like this doing in a nice girl like you?"
>Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
>Waynesville, MO

cf. also
"What's a crummy joint like you doing in a nice girl like this?"
(innocent version, courtesy of osteopaths et al.)
"What's a plaice like you doing in a nice girl like this?"

and the ever-popular
"What's a nice gull like you doing in a dump like this?"

LH

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2011 7:41 AM
>Subject: "a nice girl like you"
>
>
>YBQ lacks the classic, facetious pick-up line, "What's a nice girl like you
>doing in a place like this?"
>
>But what's even worse is that GB searches don't take it back any earlier
>than the 1990s - despite the fact that I recall it well from high school,
>very probably because Martin Scorsese directed a short feature with that
>title in 1963. (I used the phrase frequently, and it got me nowhere.)
>
>I haven't checked elsewhere.
>
>But WTH's with GB?
>
>JL
>
>--
>"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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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