Fun with phrases: "crackle to life"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Mostly radios do this.

["1930" Franklin W. Dixon _The Great Airport Mystery_ (N.Y.: Grosset)
[unp.] [GB]: One of the radio speakers crackled to life.]

1934 _New Castle [Pa.] News_  (Sept. 22) 1: Amazing developments...fairly
crackled into life today as New York police hammered away at the Teutonic
stolidity of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, alleged receiver of the Lindbergh
ransom.

1936 _Arizona Republic_ (Dec. 20) 3 : The police radio crackled to life at
7:35 o'clock last night.

"1930" is a Hardy Boys adventure. It's bracketed because it's a modern
edition, and at least some of the language seems to have been updated
(e.g., "Alfa" is used in radio communications for the letter "A"!). The
original edition isn't in GB.

JL

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

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