"go figure"

Tue May 1 04:08:56 UTC 2012

I am re-posting this one as well, as it appeared with HTML tags. I hope
it comes through cleanly this time. It appears that one of recent
Thunderbird updates turned off the text-only flags, but it was then
corrected in the newest version. So, I hope this comes through cleanly.

     VS-)

======== Original message

Are we sure about "40 years"? What about 100 years?

Best I can tell, the following is a full accounting of relevant GB hits.

http://goo.gl/vmTbK
The National Builder. September 1910
Winning With Building Hobbies. By J. Crow Taylor. p. 36/1
> I find that a good way to get around a lot of cut throat competition
> is to get something else to talk about besides prices. Get some
> features worked in that appeal to the man. See that he gets interested
> in beautifying the house and getting certain characteristics and then
> he is not likely to go figure wth somebody else. Not so hard anyway.

The date is very clear, right at the top of the page. What struck me is
that the expression does not quite appear to mean what it does now--or,
perhaps, it does and we just have no idea what it means. ;-)

No, it's not the "Go figure!" expression. But it's not hard to see that
the latter may very well have been derived from it.

If you think this is a singular case, think again!

http://goo.gl/oKJGZ
Scientific American. Supplement No. 1119. June 12, 1897
The Lucifore--For Distributing Ignited Matches. p. 16/1-2
> The lucifore is a small apparatus designed to permit of getting all
> the good possible out of poor or indifferent matches, which, when
> struck, ignite or do not ignite, as the case may be and which are apt
> to go figure.

To make things more interesting, that piece appears to be taken
(translated) from a French magazine.

And another one, even closer to home.

http://goo.gl/mGeDP
Typographical Journal. Volume 41(2). August 1912
 From Local Unions. Buffalo, N.Y. By W. A. Coyell. p. 203/2
> "Dog days" being here, business is at a low ebb. About the only thing
> on tap at present is the approaching Cleveland convention. A goodly
> crowd from Buffalo will be in attendance. Many of those intending to
> go figure on killing two birds with one stone, especially those of our
> members who are also members of the Eagles.

And another strange one a little bit later.

http://goo.gl/RSSeR
Hearings before the Committee on Investigation of the Indian Service.
[US] House of Representatives. March 12-14, 1917
Condition of the Florida Seminoles. March 12, 1917. Statement of Tony
Tommy, a Seminole Indian. p. 34
> Mr. Tommy (18 year old witness). I have been trying to go figure out
> since I been going to school, and I would like to have some land for
> myself, farm and houses and everything. Too many Indians laying around
> now. They ought to be farmers living on it.

1897. 1910, 1912, 1917. Then a big gap. And, if you want a Jewish
source, I got one. The match, which is held at the opposite end by a
spring, rises quickly at the same moment and becomes vertical.

http://goo.gl/BP4mX
An Eskimo Named Joe Siegelman: A Play in Two Acts. By Abe Einhorn. 1968
Act 2. p. 54
> /Mama./ A Nun? Go figure... even with the Gentiles is too much
> permissiveness now. How could a nun get into such a habit?

And it just happens to be just outside that 40 year window. Hmmm...

Here's another one--again, an extended version that's been suggested
before, and a bit earlier than Einhorn's play.

http://goo.gl/vbbGs
Baseball Digest. June 1959
Even Lary Can't Explain How He Hex-Rays Yanks. By Arthur Richman (New
York Mirror). p. 57/1
> Yet, I lost four times to the A's without beating them once and wone
> only one game against the Orioles in three starts. Go figure that out.

I am willing to bet that Arthur Richman was Jewish--but Frank Lary, who
is the source of that quote, probably was not. (Born and raised on a
farm in Alabama http://goo.gl/Ij709 )

And an identical one from the same year.

http://goo.gl/4WOyE
The Crisis. January 1959 (Apparently picked up from America, 1958)
Two News Items. p. 30/2
> One day the State Dept. asks Russell to tour the world as a goodwill
> ambassador for the United Sates and the next day the guy has trouble
> finding a place to sleep and eat in the United States. Go figure that out.

The quote is from Red Auerbach, whose ethnic identity is beyond doubt
(nor is Bill Russell's, but that's a different story).

And another play with a slightly extended expression--and, again, the
playwrite is Jewish.

http://goo.gl/JWN9S
The Beauty Part: A Comedy in Two Acts. By Sidney Joseph Perelman. 1963
Act 1. p. 36/
/
> /Hubris./ ... Listen, I know that dodge. Your dealer told me about
> your publicity phobia. (/Crosses L. to below No. 3, gazes around
> studio, shakes head/.) Go figure it. It always kills me an artist
> should hole up in a flea-bag to conceive a masterpiece.

And yet another, this time a novel, it seems.

http://goo.gl/mJ2dY
To An Early Grave. By Wallace Markfield. 1964. [2000 edition]
p. 94
> Whoosh, thought Morroe. Look, look at him /shlubb /away! Eyes bulging,
> spittle flying! Go figure him out.

Markfield's book had been reprinted in 2000. I'm not sure of Markfield's
ethnic identity, but all the characters--at least on that page--are
Jewish (plus not the use of Yiddishisms--just on pp. 94-95, shlubb,
bulvan, schlumping, bubbe, tocchis, hot pastrame and lox wings).

And yet another (earlier) play with no doubt about the ethnic identity
of the writer:

http://goo.gl/DbmUZ
A Hole in the Head. By Arnold Schulman. 1957 [Unpublished play copyright
1955]
Act 2. p. 64
> /Sidney./ Would you believe that dumb jerk can barely read and write
> his own name? Go figure. A man like that makes a fortune.

And I can push the exact expression another few years back.

http://goo.gl/GkDyp
Billboard. November 1, 1950
Night Club Reviews. La Martinique, New York. p. 44/3
> But despite the handicaps of a typical jammed opening, a non-operating
> air-conditioning system -- go figure a heat wave in November -- the
> show came off way ahead.

So there you have it. Some tentative clustering in 1890s-1910s, and
another one, with unquestionable ethnic identity, from 1950-1964.

     VS-)

On 4/29/2012 11:19 PM, J P Maher wrote:
> Instead of presuming, we need to see loci from Jewish sources and Black English sources.=A0=A0=A0As a linguist living 40+ 40 years and taking notes in a Chicago Jewish neighborhood I'd say a Jewish origin cannot be presumed, but a corpus of TV sitcoms will show it's all over Black English.

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