The Fickle Finger of Fate

[Dan Goncharoff]

Oops, YDN archive does not present results in true date order.

The Yale Daily News no. 7
October 5 1936:
THE WINDMILL

"The foul finesse of the fickle finger of Fate has long been a subject of
hard comment."

DanG


On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 3:57 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> In your time period:
>
> The Yale Daily News no. 53
>  November 27 1937: Harvard's Benchley Soaks Eli's Woolley
>
> "But for some inscrutable reason the fickle finger of Fate pointed out to
> him that he should raise a beard."
>
> Makes me wonder if it came from vaudeville or Hollywood...
>
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 1:59 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:      The Fickle Finger of Fate
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>

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