tragedy plus time

[Tom Zurinskas]

Or in the case of the AFLAC quacking comedian who got fired, tragedy = humor + the wrong time.


Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, then Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 9.
The FREE English-based phonetic converters, URL and text , are at truespel.com




>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Ben Zimmer
> Subject: Re: tragedy plus time
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 1:55 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> >
> > This is usually attributed to Carol Burnett or Woody Allen, but both of those
> > attributions are probably apocryphal like the Twain one. In 2004 Barry Popik
> > posted a citation from the early 1960s here, I believe.
>
> From 1962:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0403B&L=ADS-L&P=R10225
>
> Steve Allen was quoted saying it in a July 25, 1958 UPI article:
>
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QMpCAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iKsMAAAAIBAJ&pg=7195,1183654&hl=en
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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