"What's not to love?"

Tue Sep 30 17:20:15 UTC 2014

"What's not to like?" may also appear in 

1955 Max Shulman and R. P. Smith, The Tender Trap, a Comedy, p. 25 [GB] 

1953 Nathan Ausubel, A Treasury of Jewish Humor,  p. 330 [HT]

1949 Eth Clifford, Go Fight City Hall, p. 109 [HT]

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 12:34 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "What's not to love?"

Funny, he doesn't look Jewish.

>From the biography in Literature OnLine, which categorizes him as Jewish,
though the bio doesn't expressly say so:
"Max Shulman was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on 14 March 1919, the son
of Abraham Shulman, a house painter, and Bessie Karchmer Schulman."

The NYTimes obit also doesn't directly say he was Jewish.  "Mr. Shulman was
born in St. Paul on March 14, 1919, the son of a Russian-born house
painter."   "Mr. Shulman is survived by . . . a sister, Esther Feldman, of
St. Paul."

I'm doing this from home, so I can't utilize my preferred system, which is
to look him up in books.  There are biographical encyclopedias of American
humorists and of Jewish writers I would look at, if they were at hand.

GAT

On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Interesting.  I kept thinking it sounded like a Yiddishism, and Max
> Shulman (of Dobie Gillis fame) would indeed qualify as a likely conduit.
> His Wikipage doesn't tell us that he was Jewish, but with a name like Max
> Shulman…
>
> I did learn from the Wikipedia page that Martha Rose Shulman, purveyor of
> vegetarian food columns in the Times, is Max's daughter, so that's
> something.
>
> LH
>
> On Sep 29, 2014, at 3:05 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>
> > Apparently "What's not to love?" was in a high-profile 1957 book.
> >
> > Year: 1957
> > Title: Rally Round The Flag, Boys!
> > Author: Max Shulman
> > Page 8 and 9 (according to GB)
> > Database: Google Books snippet unverified
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Here, obviously, was a
> > girl of passion and fire. Now it remained to find out
> > just what it was she was passionate and fiery about.
> > "I'm not quite sure I follow you," he said.
> > "Do you love children?"
> > "What's not to love?"
> > "Exactly. How can you help loveing those sweet,
> > innocent little things, so full of trust and affection,...
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 2:50 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
> > <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Here's a 1965 cite for "what's not to love?" (I only looked in
> >> GenealogyBank and GB.)
> >>
> >> Date: November 21, 1965
> >> Newspaper: Evening Star
> >> Article: Glowing Exhibition at Phillips Now
> >> Author: Frank Getlein (Art Critic of The Star)
> >> Newspaper Location: Washington (DC), District of Columbia
> >> Quote Page: D3, Column: 1
> >> Database: GenealogyBank
> >>
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> Paris Paintings
> >>
> >> This is precisely how Loren
> >> MacIver paints her pictures.
> >>
> >> Take the city of Paris.
> >> Sizzling or dizzling, what's not
> >> to love? Here is how MacIver
> >> loves it:
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 2:14 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: "What's not to love?"
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> The Phrase Finder website has an entry for the expressions:
> >>>
> >>> What's not to like?
> >>> What's not to love?
> >>> http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whats-not-to-like.html
> >>>
> >>> "So what's not to like?" appeared in The Dunkirk Evening Observer in
> >>> September 1963 according to the website. The VW advertising campaign
> >>> of 1974 was also pointed to for the phrase "what's not to love".
> >>>
> >>> Garson
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 12:48 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: "What's not to love?"
> >>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>
> >>>> 1974 _Mobile Register_ (July 21) 95  [NewsBank]: The Love Bug
> [Volkswagen].
> >>>> At a special, low $2499; what's not to love?
> >>>>
> >>>> 1980 _Seattle Daily Times_ (Feb. 14) 71: What's not to love about a
> >>>> catatonic schizophrenic?
> >>>>
> >>>> JL
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 8:11 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:      "What's not to love?"
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Another advertising cliche'. GB alleges an ex. in 1965, but I'm
> skeptical.
> >>>>> Maybe 1975 or later.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> JL
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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>

--
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

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