[Ads-l] Fun with Phrases: "I don't make the rules."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Heard a million times, right?  But these appear to be the earliest on
record:

1892 _St. Louis Post Dispatch_ (March 3) 6: I don't make the rules of the
department and am, therefore, not responsible for them.

1938 _L.A. Times_ (Jan. 24) A2: I explain there is no provision for them.
If they resent it, I just say I don't make the rules.

1938 _Trenton Evening Times_ (Feb. 19) 10: "That's the rule of the company.
I don't make the rules."

1948 _Springfield [Mass.] Union_ (Oct. 1) 10: I'm sorry about this, girls
and boys, but after all, I don't make the rules [about obesity shortening
life expectancy]. I just tell you about 'em.

The Readex evidence shows a surge beginning in 1968-69. ProQuest is
similar, with a peak in the '80s.

Earliest GB: 1959. Next earliest: 1970.

Note that the pre-1948 exx. are literal, straightforward statements.
Nowadays the phrase is at least as likely to be humorous or sarcastic.

Strange but true: there are virtually *no* exx. (considering the zillions
of words searched) before the 1960s.

JL




-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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