The Fickle Finger of Fate

Sun Jan 19 02:42:31 UTC 2014

Here is the "fickle finger of fortune" in 1902. As Monty Python once
said "Blessed are the cheesemakers".

Book Title: Tenth Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association
Date: Meeting Held January 8 to 10, 1902
Article: Response to Address of Welcome by John A Carswell, Lone Rock, Wis.
Start Page: 4
Quote Page: 5
Printed by Democrat Printing Company, State Printer, Madison, Wisconsin

http://books.google.com/books?id=C19qAAAAMAAJ&q=fickle#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Do all you can do, all you can for the betterment of the cause, and if
then, should it so happen that the fickle finger of fortune should
point some of us by the wayside as among the "has beens," we will have
the consolation when it comes to the grand final wind-up, we will all
inherit our six feet two of Mother Earth, and even at the worst,
should we have to take it in some dark corner of the potter's field,
if we go there, boys, with a clear conscience, well and honorably
done, we will sleep as sound, we will waken to as bright a morning as
he who lies in a marble sarcophagus.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 4:58 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: The Fickle Finger of Fate
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The mere "finger of Fate," of course, was once a literary cliche'. Usually
> it "pointed" at someone rather than, um, that alliterative thing I've heard
> of it doing.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 4:50 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: The Fickle Finger of Fate
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Just prior to being dingled by the dangling dong of destiny, I've often
>> been fucked by that.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: The Fickle Finger of Fate
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > 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
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -Wilson
>> -----
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> -Mark Twain
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org