"Jew(ish) lightning"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf., for the form, "Jersey lightning"?

FWIW, it doesn't sound like a ca1900 kind of expression to me.

JL

On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 10:42 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Jew(ish) lightning"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I think I first heard "Jewish lightning" (referring to arson for
> insurance fraud) in the mid 1960's ... but of course memory is quite
> fallible. Surely the expression seemed old-fashioned to me when I first
> heard it, and I'm not sure I've heard it in the last 30 years.
>
> In Wendy A. Woloson's recent book _In Hock_ (p.148) (searchable-inside
> via Amazon): <<by the turn of the century everyone knew such arson as
> "Jewish lightning.">>. There are footnotes but I'm not sure there is one
> for this exact assertion. "Turn of the century" apparently means 1900 or
> so.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
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