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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Seems unlikely to me.

JL

On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 1:52 PM, Michael Everson <everson at evertype.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael Everson <everson at EVERTYPE.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "eat, breathe, and sleep"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 11 Apr 2015, at 12:04, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
> wrote:
>
> > 'To be entirely dedicated to.'
> >=20
> > Quite familiar to me for decades. Not in OED.
> >=20
> > TV promo: "Amy eats, breathes, and sleeps Beauty!"
> >=20
> > 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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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