tin foil cap (1979 September 13 [for protecting brain])

[Garson O'Toole]

BillMullins
> 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."

Excellent cites. I looked for the variant "tin foil cap" [for neuronal
protection] and found an instance in 1979. Perhaps OED can incorporate
the "cap" variant in their entry in some way.

Cite: 1979 September 13, Calgary Herald, "Dear Mr. Mayor: Please fix
taps, zaps" by Don Martin, Page 1, Calgary. (Google News archive)

A nasty neighbor's deadly rays were bombarding his house and the tin
foil cap on his head was not adequate protection from
being "zapped." So the man wrote Mayor Ross Alger for help.

Garson

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