Fun with phrases: "in a previous life"

[Jonathan Lighter]

This means "at an earlier time in one's life."  My wife has been using this
since at least the early '90s, if not the late '80s..

A TV weatherman explained today that "in a previous life," about fifteen
years ago, he owned a small farm.

The earliest I can find in GB:

1993 in _H.R. 3600, The Health Security Act_ (Washington, D.C.: USGPO,
1994) IV 212 (GB snippet, looks real): MR. CONDRON: In a previous life I
was a congressional aide to your late colleague and a great man, Silvio
Conte of Massachusetts.

2000 Jay Hopkins in _Flying_  (July) 59: In a previous life, I served as a
school consultant for the Onondaga Council on Alcoholism in New York.

JL


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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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