[Ads-l] "eat, breathe, and sleep"

[Michael Everson]

On 11 Apr 2015, at 12:04, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> 'To be entirely dedicated to.'
> 
> Quite familiar to me for decades. Not in OED.
> 
> TV promo: "Amy eats, breathes, and sleeps Beauty!"
> 
> 1952 _Pottstown [Pa.] Mercury_ (June 13) 8: Conner is labor's man. He has
> espoused the cause of organized labor since his early youth. It is his
> life, a subject he eats, breathes and sleeps in addition to working at
> constantly.

Likely inspiration:

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he SAID was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

"Come, we shall have some fun now!" thought Alice. "I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.

"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the March Hare.

"Exactly so," said Alice.

"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.

"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know."

"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"

"You might just as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like what I get' is the same thing as 'I get what I like'!"

"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"

"It IS the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn't much.


Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/

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