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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Great find, Fred and Garson.

I wonder if I read my version in Reisner's _Graffiti: Two Thousand Years of
Wall Writing_ (1971).

But maybe I saw it in situ (i.e., in muro).

JL

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 12:10 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> Fred's "Yale Book of Quotations" has an pertinent entry:
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Abraham Cowley
> English poet, 1618–1667
>
> Life is an incurable disease.
> "To Dr. Scarborough" l. 111 (1656)
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 11:54 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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":
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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