nail that Jell-O

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 1:18 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>
> On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 11:19 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/06/magazine/on-language-canute-s-bum-rap.html
>> The earliest use, at least until an earlier one is found, was
>> submitted by Prof. Joe E. Decker of the University of Tampa: ''You
>> could no more make an agreement with them,'' wrote Theodore Roosevelt
>> in 1915, describing his troubles with the Colombian Government leaders
>> during negotiations for rights in the Panama Canal Zone, ''than you
>> could nail currant jelly to a wall - and the failure to nail currant
>> jelly to a wall is not due to the nail; it is due to the currant
>> jelly.''
[...]
> But here's the definitive one. It supplies the date (July 2, 1915) and the
> source--"private letter to me" (written by William Roscoe Thayer), as well
> as the complete relevant text:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=v-5cdCPrlLcC&pg=PA326
>
> To make things more interesting, it's in the biography of Hay published in
> 1915 (so it's not likely to have appeared in the earlier edition ;-) ).

That's likely the source that Decker used. In a letter to the editor
responding to Safire's original query about the phrase, he had
explained that the quote appeared in a letter to Thayer.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/09/magazine/l-teddy-roosevelt-s-metaphor-605086.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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