"What's not to love?"

Tue Sep 30 19:21:38 UTC 2014

Shulman is a pretty strongly Jewish name (< _shul_ + _man_), and the online obit mentioned he was from a Jewish neighborhood in St. Paul, which seems like an irrelevant point if he wasn't.  (We're talking ethnicity rather than religion, so I can imagine religion wouldn't be mentioned--I'm just saying he was Jew-ish, and thus an heir to that particular tradition of humor.)

LH

On Sep 30, 2014, at 1:09 PM, Baker, John wrote:

> I looked at a few more obituaries, and they didn't add much; none of them had any reference to religion.  Shulman's memorial service was at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills.
> 
> 
> John Baker
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of George Thompson
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 12:35 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "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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>>>>>>> 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."
>>>>>> 
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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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