Head in the oven, feet in the freezer = average

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nifty!

Doesn't scan too well, though.

JL


On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 3:17 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Head in the oven, feet in the freezer = average
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > A CNN guest today mentioned "the old joke" about an economist whose
> > head was in an oven and feet in a freezer; asked how he felt he said
> > "About average."
> >
> > Earliest I've found:
> >
> > 1977 Joanne Omang in_The New Mexicam_ (Santa Fe) (May 12)  A12:
> > To say that Latin America's exports rose 14 per cent in value in 1976
> > is like saying a man with his head in the oven and his feet in the
> freezer
> > is comfortable on the average.
>
> Here is a instance of the joke presented in verse in 1960.
>
> [ref] 1960 June 11, San Antonio Express and News, For Land's Sake:
> Don't Give It Back to the Indians by Arthur L. Coleman, Quote Page
> 6-C, Column 7 and 8, San Antonio, Texas. (NewspaperArchive)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
>
> MEAN VERSE
> (To be served median rare, a la mode)
>
> An old statistician named Angus McPheezer
> Kept his head in the stove and his feet in the freezer.
> The strain was immense,
> But to him it made sense--
> On the average, he was a comfortable geezer.
>
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
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>



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