Mouseburger and the OED

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/14/2012 06:15 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>On Aug 14, 2012, at 5:51 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > At 8/14/2012 05:37 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >> ...  Although Fox alleges that Brown coined "mouseburger"; I see in
> >> the OED that the Daily Times-News of Burlington, N.C. had it 11
> years earlier.)
> >
> > I see that the NYTimes on-line has a correction:  "The obituary also
> > referred incorrectly to "mouseburger," a word Ms. Brown invented to
> > describe women, like her younger self, who were physically
> > unprepossessing and had few prospects. She had used the word at least
> > as early as 1971; she did not coin it in her book "Having It All,"
> > published in 1982."
> >
> > I assume there is evidence that the Daily Times-News was quoting Brown.
> >
>Right; not enough info at the cite/site to know, but the above
>correction is certainly consistent with it having been that line in
>'71 ("You've got to be something more than a little mouseburger to
>get that kind of man.") be HGB's (or HG pre-B?).  No entry in the
>OED for the literal "mouseburger", referring to the bargain
>luncheonette special.

Gurley married Brown in 1959; she wrote "Sex and the Single Girl" in
1962; she became editor in chief at Cosmopolitan in 1965.  So it's
certainly possible it's an HGB line.  [Dates from NYT and Wikipedia,
except that the NYT has not a word about David Brown or the date of
their marriage!]

Joel

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