The Fickle Finger of Fate

[Jonathan Lighter]

Some of us may associate this phrase with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (where
it figured in the weekly "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award."

Others, more knowledgeable, believe it arose during World War II.

Both wrong:

1934 _Arcadia [Calif.] Tribune_ (July 7) 7: But the fickle finger of
fate...decreed otherwise.

1936 _Ruston [La.] Daily Ledger_   (May 2) 4: Anyway, we hope the little
pup has better luck than his predecessors, whose lives were cut short by
the fickle finger of fate.

1937 _Times-Picayune_ (N.O.) (Aug. 8) IV 2: Kissinger is the correspondent
responsible for the vivid "fickle finger of fate" account of McLaney's
injury.

The fickle finger strikes, and, having struck, moves on....

JL

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

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