[Ads-l] Joke: Bartender meets a grasshopper

[Stephen Goranson]

I like this joke. If Google Book snippets can be trusted (with partial date support from WorldCat, *if* the vol. and no. is correct):

Crow's Forest Products Digest - Volume 38, Part 2 - Page 146,  1960

"On the slight chance you may not have majored in biology at Yale, the Melanoplus spretus is a grasshopper to the common people. It soon became apparent ...Grasshopper (Bridling with suspicion) "You nuts or something? I get around . . . there's never been a drink named after me. I've never heard of a ... drink named Chester. And neither have you."

https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=grasshopper+%22named+after%22&tbs=,cdr:1,cd_min:Jan+1_2+1955,cd_max:Dec+31_2+1961&num=10&gws_rd=ssl

https://books.google.com/books?id=JFrlAAAAMAAJ&q=%22there%27s+never+been+a+drink+named+after+me.+I%27ve+never+heard+of+a%22&dq=%22there%27s+never+been+a+drink+named+after+me.+I%27ve+never+heard+of+a%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kKfYVPyyGI_ggwSoi4TwDA&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA

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

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Monday, February 9, 2015 6:43 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Joke: Bartender meets a grasshopper

Barry posted an entry recently about a grasshopper joke with citations
starting on August 18, 1961.

Entry title: A grasshopper walks into a bar..." (bar joke)
Date: January 31, 2015
Short link: http://bit.ly/1vzWPSM
Long link: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/a_grasshopper_walks_into_a_bar/

Here is a citation with a date a few weeks earlier.

Date: July 24, 1961
Newspaper: Los Angeles Times
Newspaper Location: Los Angeles, California
Article: Ham On Ryon: It's Almost Too Pat to Be True
Author: Art Ryon
Quote Page B5, Column 1,
Database: ProQuest

[Begin excerpt]
Silliest story of the week: A bartender meets a grasshopper and is
pretty impressed. "Do you know," he asks, "that we have a drink named
after you?" This impresses the grasshopper. "Gee, imagine," he
exclaims, "a drink named Leonard!"
[End excerpt]

The joke was reprinted in the Omaha World Herald with an
acknowledgment to the LA Times.

Date: August 1, 1961
Newspaper: Omaha World Herald
Newspaper Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Article: Individualist (Acknowledgement: Art Ryon in Los Angeles Times)
Quote Page 16, Column 5
Database: GenealogyBank

Garson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org