Phrase: brother, can you spare a paradigm (1961)

[Garson O'Toole]

James A. Landau wrote:
>
> a bumper sticker:
>
>     SHIFT HAPPENS
>     CAN YOU SPARE A PARADIGM?

Coincidentally, I searched for early instances of two versions of
phrases using the word paradigm a couple months ago.

1) brother, can you spare a paradigm
2) brother, can you paradigm

Cite: 1961 Winter, Journalism Quarterly, Book Reviews: Review by
Walter Gieber [Review of The Self-Conscious Society by Eric Larrabee]
Page 102, Column 1, Published by the American Association of Teachers
of Journalism, Iowa City, Iowa. (Verified on paper)
[Begin excerpt]
Our social scientists count too much (I've heard some mention of this
at AEJ conventions). The Laswellian and like communication formulas
don't tell us anything about the real communication process (brother,
can you spare a paradigm?).
[End excerpt]

Cite: 1973 Oct 31, New York Times, Books of The Times: Characters in a
Wordstorm by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, [Book review of Black Conceit
by John Leonard], Page 43, New York. (ProQuest)
{Begin excerpt]
It is a prose that conjures hilarious scenes in a twinkle, moves
mountains, fashions landscapes, and kills whatever it fixes with a
baleful eye. It is a total system; it puts it all together. Oh, and it
puns ("Brother, can you paradigm!").
[End excerpt]

The book under review in the 1973 citation apparently contains the
expression but I have not verified this directly.

Garson

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