[Ads-l] "Not my circus, not my monkeys."

[Dan Goncharoff]

A quick Google finds the Polish "Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy" in a snippet
dated in 1996.

Another snippet dated 1998 attributes it to Polish historian Adam Michnik,
but it's from a journal Znak, and I don't trust the date.

DanG

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 5:24 PM, James Callan <scarequotes at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James Callan <scarequotes at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Not my circus, not my monkeys."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Within the last year, I've heard the phrase "not my circus, not my
> monkeys," a colorful expression meaning "not my problem."
>
> It's supposedly a Polish proverb, but it seems to have appeared in English
> starting in 2012.
>
> Has anyone else heard this phrase? Any clue about whether or not the Polish
> proverbial origin is true or not?
>
> --
> James Callan: Good with words.
> Twitter: @scarequotes
> (206) 999-4831
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