Fun with phrases
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri Mar 23 14:53:07 UTC 2012
"It's my story and I'm sticking to it!"
Popular in recent years, it shows up surprisingly (and in a humorous
context) in the Oscar-winning film _The Forty-Ninth Parallel_ (1941). But
you'll have to listen carefully: the speaker is a comic wife on a radio
hookup.
JL
On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 10:15 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks for your response John. I think the comment about heat versus
> humidity can be pushed back. Here is some evidence that the general
> expression was a cliche (to some) by 1909.
>
> Journal: Industrial Engineering
> Title: An Improvement in Heating and Ventilating
> Date: 1909 June
> http://books.google.com/books?id=bufNAAAAMAAJ&q=familiar#v=snippet&
> [Begin excerpt]
> That high relative humidity combined with high temperature and with
> low carbon dioxide content, is almost unbearable we know. For
> instance, during some of the hot summer months. "It is the humidity,
> not the heat," is a familiar expression. That high carbon dioxide
> content, without high temperature or humidity is disagreebale, we do
> not know.
> [End excerpt]
> [sic disagreebale]
>
> Here is a prototypical explanation in 1894.
>
> Title: The Interior
> Date: 1894 July 5
> http://books.google.com/books?id=dBBQAAAAYAAJ&q=humidity#v=snippet&
> [Begin excerpt]
> We left Chicago on the 22nd of June, I believe it was, and the city
> was sweltering in heat and humidity. It was not the heat so much as
> the humidity. If the air be dry, one can stand a heat of ninety
> degrees or over. If it be wet, we swelter at eighty degrees. The
> reason is that a dry air immediately vaporizes one's perspiration, ...
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:26 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
> > Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > The 1916 example from The Smart Set implies that blaming the
> humidity rather than the heat was an all-too-popular cliché of the time, an
> impression strengthened by the 1917 Vanity Fair citation. The implication
> is that the phrase must have achieved broad popularity shortly before that
> time. Perhaps 1915 had a particularly humid summer. For example, the
> Boston Evening Globe (Aug. 13, 1915) (Access Newspaper Archive) advises,
> "No folks, it isn't excessive heat that's causing you so much trouble
> today. It is the doings of our old friend Lieut Col Humidity - the fellow
> who used to be called Gen Humidity, but whose former title has expired of
> old age."
> >
> >
> > Incidentally, I took a look at some more pages of The Smart Set,
> which Garson found. It's truly awful, and it makes me think less of H.L.
> Mencken for having edited it.
> >
> >
> > John Baker
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Garson O'Toole
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:31 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >
> > Thanks Jon. Some blame must be allocated to the Encyclopaedia
> > Britannica of 1824.
> >
> > Title Encyclopaedia Britannica: or, A dictionary of arts and sciences,.
> > Year: 1824
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > It is clear, that not the heat but the humidity of the climate creates
> > the. numerous debilitating infirmities of these plains ; for in
> > Maracaybo, Santa Marta, Rio de la Hacha, and other places on the banks
> > of the rivers, equally warm, ..
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Years later when this cliche was well established it drove a man to
> > contemplate a terrible deed.
> >
> > Date: 1916 April
> > Title: The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness
> > Volume 48
> > Story Title: The Murder of Julius K. Higgins
> > Author: Maurice Bowman Phipps
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=R3dHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22heat+he%22#v=snippet&
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > It was when he told me, in strict confidence, that it was not the heat
> > he minded but the humidity that I decided to murder him, and to murder
> > him at once if I did not wish to lose the twelve-forty-five.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> "It isn't the heat. It's the humidity."
> >>
> >> No 19th C. GB or NewspArch hits.
> >>
> >> 1917 ad for _Vanity Fair_ magazine in _House & Garden_ [GB snippet:
> >> typeface and ref. to Plattsburg army training camp make it look
> >> legit]: Let other people restate the safe-and-sane truths that
> >> dinner is their best meal; that if you saw that sunset in a painting
> >> you wouldn't believe it; and that it isn't the heat, it's the
> >> humidity.
> >>
> >> 1920 _Miami Herald_ (June 18) [Am. Hist. Newsp.] 6: ...and we swear
> >> it; we/ Have never had to say, "It's not/ The heat. It's the
> >> humidity."
> >>
> >> (Most recent OED "humidity" is 1871.)
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 10:05 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> >> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> "Who _are_ you? (I mean) _really_?"
> >>>
> >>> Fantasy/thriller cliche'.
> >>>
> >>> 1950 Ray Bradbury _The Martian Chronicles_ (Garden City, N.Y.:
> >>> Doubleday) 153: Who are you, _really_? You can't be Tom, but you
> >>> are _someone_. Who?
> >>>
> >>> JL
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 8:01 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>
> >>>> "rewriting the rules"
> >>>>
> >>>> E.g.: "Founder of avant-rock band Pere Ubu, singer David Thomas has
> >>>> been rewriting the rules of popular music for more than twenty-eight
> >>>> years."
> >>>>
> >>>> It's like throwing the book away and writing your own rules. And
> >>>> *they* have to play by them! Feels great, doesn't it?
> >>>>
> >>>> Far more GB hits in the last ten years than in the preceding hundred.
> >>>> Very few in the 19th C. What's more important, pre-1980 exx. tend very
> >>>> strongly to refer to the literal rewriting of actual rules - not the
> >>>> sort of thing David Thomas has been doing.
> >>>>
> >>>> Cf. "(But) the rules have changed!" earlier in this series.
> >>>>
> >>>> JL
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> >>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>>> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> "comes with a hefty price-tag"
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Often the price-tag is figurative. OED has a 1951 "price-tag"
> >>>>> ('monetary price'), but not in this construction.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 1957 (Jan. 1) _Directory of Fellowships in the Arts and Sciences_
> >>>>> (Washington, D.C.: Assoc of Amer. Colleges) 5 [unverified GB
> snippet]:
> >>>>> For the modern graduate student, however, advanced learning comes
> with
> >>>>> a large price tag attached.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 1968 _Yuma Daily Sun_ (Nov. 8) 4 [NewspArch]: Marketing a new
> >>>>> plaything with a hefty price tag.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 1978 C. W. Brister _Take Care_ (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadmann) 45
> >>>>> [unverified GB snippet] : Small wonder that heroism comes with a high
> >>>>> price tag and that fear for one's own safety holds some would-be
> >>>>> helpers back.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> The ref. on GB "1944" to Canadian politicians "Richard Nerysoo" and
> >>>>> "Stan J. Hovdebo" shows the date to be about 40 years too early.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> "With a hefty price-tag" gets close to 11,000,000 raw Google hits.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> JL
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 10:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> >>>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>>>> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>>>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> "Welcome to the [wonderful] world of...!"
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> In discussing yesterday's superfailure, somebody on CNN said,
> "Welcome
> >>>>>> to the world of politics!" Sarcastically, of course, which is about
> >>>>>> the only way the phrase is used nowadays outside of the wonderful
> >>>>>> world of glib, meretricious promotions.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> GB coughs up some 28,000 [!] exx. of "welcome to the wonderful
> world of" alone.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1937 _Bankers Magazine_ CXXXV 480 [GB Snippet: looks real]: Leslie
> G.
> >>>>>> McDouall... delivered an address of "Welcome to the World of
> Business
> >>>>>> and Affairs."
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1957 Jerry D. Lewis _Great Stories about Show Business_ (N.Y.:
> Coward
> >>>>>> McCann) 7: Welcome to the wonderful world of Show Business, where
> >>>>>> people possess the secret of perpetual motion.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1959 Adrian A. Paradis _Librarians Wanted_ (N.Y.: McKay) 3: Welcome
> >>>>>> to the World of Libraries.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1960 Charles H. Goren _The Elements of Bridge_ (Garden City, N.Y.:
> >>>>>> Doubleday) vii: Welcome to the world of bridge.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> From NewspArch:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1962 _Charleston [W.Va.] Daily Mail_ (June 7) 9: COMPLETELY
> INSTALLED
> >>>>>> air conditioning and heating system / Welcome to the world of
> >>>>>> controlled comfort! Step inside...away from summer's blistering
> >>>>>> heat...away from winter's chilling blasts.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1965 _Independent Press-Telegram_ [Long Beach, Calif.] (Apr. 4)
> W-10:
> >>>>>> Washington State . . . Welcome to the World of Washington.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1967 _Valley News_ [Van Nuys, Calif.] (Nov. 16) 10-B: Welcome to the
> >>>>>> world of Trans World Airlines.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1969 _Winnipeg Free Press: Weekend Magazine_ (July 19) 16: Welcome
> to
> >>>>>> the world of the perambulating pub.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1974 _The Capital_ [Annapolis. Md.] (Apr. 25) 35: Welcome to the
> world
> >>>>>> of modeling.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I remember hearing it ad nauseam in the mid to late '60s. GB has
> >>>>>> some "earlier" ones, but they either seem not to fit the present
> >>>>>> nuance, or else the dates seem dubious.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> JL
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 4:07 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> >>>>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>>>>> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>>>>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 1835 E. J. Trelawny _Adventures of a Younger Son_ (London: Bentley)
> >>>>>>> 257: She had wound herself about my heart till she became a part of
> >>>>>>> me. Our extreme youth, ardent nature, and solitude, had wrought our
> >>>>>>> feeling of affection towards each other to an intensity that
> perhaps
> >>>>>>> was never equalled, assuredly never surpassed.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Hot stuff.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> JL
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Ben Zimmer
> >>>>>>> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> >>>>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>>>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>>>>> Poster: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >>>>>>>> Subject: Re: Fun with phrases
> >>>>>>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 12:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>>>>>>> [...]
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Numerous other exx. of most of these phrases, and some others
> that are
> >>>>>>>>> similar ("You'' laugh! You'll cry! You'll love it!" is quite
> popoular)
> >>>>>>>>> right into the 21st C.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Also, "I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me," which became a
> >>>>>>>> sarcastic catchphrase in the late '80s.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> --bgz
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>>> Ben Zimmer
> >>>>>>>> http://benzimmer.com/
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>>> 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."
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>> 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."
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>> 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."
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>> 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."
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>> 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."
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> 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."
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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