"changed X forever"

[Joel S. Berson]

Someone once, probably several years ago and
perhaps in the NYTimes Sunday Book section, a
critique of the many current book titles with the
subtitle "the X that changed the Y", where Y was
something no more limited than the "universe",
the "world", the "country", or Yale.  (X could
be, and in the best titles was, something quite small.)

A quick probe of WorldCat gives about 2509 titles
(of course some are reprints) that contain the phrase "that changed the".

Joel

At 10/5/2011 09:22 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>"(and) changed the rules of X forever."
>
>A favorite of TV documentaries. Almost needless to say: no 19th C. hits at
>GB.
>
>Earliest at GB is allegedly from the _Atlantic_ in 1987 (snippet not
>verified):
>
>"They simply went on doing what they did best — quizzes, long dinneers,
>longer cocktail parties — until a series of unrelated events *changged the
>rules of their beloved game forever*."
>
>JL
>On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 9:22 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I am assuming you're jesting on both A and B (I take it, it's meant to
> > be a parody on Yiddish jokes). "Sausage" is "kiełbasa" and diminutive
> > for "cat" is "kicia", not "kishka". The Russian diminutive for "cat" is
> > "kisia", which is pronounced nearly the same, or "kiska", which is
> > similar, but not identical to "kishka". Neither has any connection to
> > "kishka" (Russian) or "kiszka" (Polish), other than one's gut is used
> > for various purposes (e.g., strings for musical instruments) and the
> > other is wrapped in gut. As such, my sense of humor fails me with
> > respect to this fanciful dialog. Perhaps it's the amount of sleep I got
> > last night with cats jumping all over me... or the kiełbasa I ate
> > earlier...
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > On 10/4/2011 8:55 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > > On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 8:41 PM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> >  wrote:
> > >> "kishka" is Slavic>>Yiddish for "gut" or
> > >> "intestines".
> > > A. "Kishka'?! Why have you named your kitten "Intestine"?
> > > B. It's not named "Intestine." "Kishka" means *sausage" in Polish.
> > > It's named "Sausage," because it's such a fat little thing."
> > >
> > >   "Un faux ami," as the French say.
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Wilson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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