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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

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

Excellent point, JL. While I was searching for "terminal disease" I
was distracted by the variant "fatal disease" with citations in 1943
and 1972. Now I've added a 1971 citation for "terminal disease":

[Begin QI excerpt]
A 1971 newspaper article described a senior honor thesis written for
the anthropology department of the University of California, Berkeley
about women's graffiti titled "Write On! A Study of Female Latrinalia"
by Luana Martilla. The following examples were included:

[ref] 1971 August 4, Courier-Post, Do They Write On the Walls In the
Ladies Room? by Susan Berman (Special to the Courier-Post), Quote Page
6, Column 4, Camden, New Jersey. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]

[Begin quotation]
Some of the graffiti reflected despair: "Help, I'm all alone" and
"Life is a terminal disease."
[End quotation]
[End QI excerpt]

[Begin acknowledgement]
Further thanks to Jonathan Lighter who prompted the search for the
1971 citation.
[End acknowledgement]

Garson



> 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
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org