[Ads-l] "Fish Without a Bicycle" Quote

[Stephen Goranson]

This seems like a long shot--Dental Economics journal needs "a fish needs a bicycle" like I don't know what--but hathitrust (unverified) indicates that that phrase appears on p.92 of v. 64/7-12 1974.


https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt/search?q1=%22fish+needs+a+bicycle%22&id=uc1.31158001850873&view=1up&seq=9


Stephen Goranson

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



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <...>
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2016 3:46 PM
To: ...
Subject: [ADS-L] "Fish Without a Bicycle" Quote

I took a break from wondering whether I have to make a quotation about grabbing women "by the pussy" as my Quotation of the Year to revisit one of my favorite quotes of the past half-century.


Bill Mullins has pushed the earliest documented example of "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" back to June 5, 1976.  Garson O'Toole pushed the earliest attestation of the similar "[A] woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" back to May 5, 1976.


I have now found the following item in the Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Jan. 1975 (Newspapers.com): "We found this anonymous contribution to International Women's Year on a wall at Forest Lodge: 'A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.'"  The provenance of this discovery perhaps gives more credibility to the claim that Australian educator, journalist, and politician Irina Dunn originated "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" by writing it as graffiti in Sydney, Australia in 1970.


Fred Shapiro

Editor

YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIFAw&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=9s6wJSebSj-82F9tXimlRhGnsAW_unAFmBwS9Xnscaw&s=HpFDuMkmpgUFzAhTZZVah1e5z8UaFASfer6C83T0jEc&e=>

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