[Ads-l] Quote: Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease

[Jonathan Lighter]

Seems to me I heard the variant "Life is a terminal disease" in the '70s or
'80s.

JL

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 3:29 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> A list member kindly helped me to explore the provenance of the saying
> in the subject line after I received an inquiry. Now there is an entry
> on the topic:
>
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/01/29/life/
>
> [Begin acknowledgement excerpt]
> Special thanks to Dan J. Bye who identified important citations in
> 1980 and 1981. He also verified several citations in “The Observer”.
> In addition, thanks to Charles Doyle for accessing Guy Bellamy’s book.
> Also, thanks to Nigel Rees for his valuable reference “Graffiti 2”.
> [End acknowledgement excerpt]
>
> Here is a summary of the results:
>
> 1943: Some people think of life as a fatal disease. —Francis T. Cunningham
> 1968: Life is a hereditary disease. —Anonymous Graffito
> 1980: Life is a sexually transmitted disease. —Anonymous Graffito
> 1981: Life is just another sexually transmitted social disease. —Margaret
> Atwood
> 1982: Life is a sexually transmitted disease. — attributed to Posy Simmonds
> 1982: Life is a sexually transmitted disease. —Guy Bellamy
> 1984: Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease. —Marilyn Duckworth
> 1985: Life is a sexually transmitted disease & there’s a 100%
> mortality rate. —R. D. Laing
>
> Feedback and interesting citations welcome
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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