[Ads-l] Robert Benchley on jogging

Mon Mar 13 08:04:25 UTC 2017

Excellent work, Peter. The Google Books database includes "Merely
Colossal" by Arthur Mayer and the anecdote is visible via snippets:

https://books.google.com/books?id=qKdMAQAAIAAJ&q=meteors

Garson

On Mon, Mar 13, 2017 at 3:45 AM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> When the anecdote found its way into newspapers in 1952, it was reported as coming from Arthur B. Mayer's book, "Merely Colossal".  He claimed that when he saw Robert Benchley sunning himself indoors with a sunlamp, Benchley told him he didn't like the outdoors because - that's where things could fall on you.  Like "meteors or manna." Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 3, 1952  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9513997/star_tribune/
> ________________________________
> From: ADSGarson O'Toole<mailto:adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: ‎3/‎12/‎2017 22:52
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Robert Benchley on jogging
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Robert Benchley on jogging
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
>> A number of quotation sites attribute to Benchley the
>> line, "Go jogging? What, and get hit by a meteor?=E2=80=9D
>> Inasmuch as Benchley definitively departed this vale
>> in 1945, that feels like an anachronism =E2=80=94 was =E2=80=9Cgo
>> jogging=E2=80=9D used in this sense as early as that?
>
> Based on an annotated bibliography it looks like Benchley wrote a
> column in 1935 that was thematically relevant. Does anyone have access
> to San Francisco Examiner in 1935? Has this newspaper been digitally
> scanned?
>
> Year: 1995
> Book: Robert Benchley: An Annotated Bibliography
> Compiler: Gordon E. Ernst
> Publisher: ABC-CLIO
> Quote Page 74
> Database: Google Books Preview
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "Duck, Brothers!"  San Francisco Examiner, February 11, 1935, p. [13].
> (How to avoid being hit by a meteor.)  (In B15)
> [End excerpt]
>
> Robert Benchley died in 1945. Here is a version of the joke based on
> sunbathing instead of jogging in 1957. Benchley delivered the
> punchline.
>
> Date: May 25, 1957
> Newspaper: The Ottawa Journal
> Newspaper Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> Article: An Attic Salt Shaker
> Quote Page 44, Column 6
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> One beautiful afternoon in Hollywood, a friend called on him and found
> him sunning himself under a lamp.
>
> "What are you doing under that?" demanded the friend. He pointed to
> the sun-drenched patio on the other side of the window. "Why don't you
> sit out there?"
>
> "What, and get hit with a meteor?" retorted Benchley.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
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