tinfoil hat (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Strangely enough, this jogs my memory and I can recall hearing about the
1982 incident when it was "newsworthy." I promptly forgot it as being of
merely passing interest.

Certainly I never noticed the phrase again till 2000 or so.

The 1982 story may really be the effective origin of the allusion. Or this
may be a completely pointless post. Or both.

JL



On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 1:32 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      tinfoil hat (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> The March updates for the OED include "tinfoil hat" ("With allusion to
> the belief that such a hat protects the wearer from mind control or
> surveillance"), with 19 July 1986 for first citation.
>
>
> _Miami Herald_ 2/19/1983 p 8C. [from Newsbank archives, no page image or
> column # available]
>
> "There is more involved in this romance than a striking violation of
> professional ethics, though the film does concede that; along the way, a
> marriage is smashed, a suicidal patient is abandoned, and a derelict is
> turned out into the street, wearing a tin- foil hat to keep the
> Trade-Center beams off his brain. The film nods at these scenes, and
> then forgets them altogether. "
>
> Cleveland OH _Plain Dealer_ 5/16/1982 p 25 col 5
> "A Cleveland woman telephoned last year to complain that her neighbor
> was shooting an invisible death ray at her.  She wanted the police to
> stop it.
>
> The dispatcher suggested she wear a tin foil hat and put tin on her
> windows to deflect the rays."
>
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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