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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Speaking of graffiti, allow me to record the first graffito I ever remember
seeing. It was in the fall of 1959 and scrawled or painted on a plywood
wall on the perimeter of the construction site that would eventually be
Lincoln Center.

It said, "WE ARE LAUGHING AT YOU, EARTHMAN"

It made quite an impression on me as a tad.  Seems like yesterday, actually.

JL

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 12:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>



-- 
"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