Mouseburger and the OED

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 14, 2012, at 6:26 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> 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

The Margalit Fox obit does mention the fact that they married in 1959 and actually has a number of references to him, citing the fact that he "produced 'Jaws' and other well-known films' and died in 2010.

LH

> or the date of
> their marriage!]
>
> Joel
>
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