[Ads-l] Hitchcock's MacGuffin

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Stephen Goranson wrote:
> a) A version of the "mongoose" in a box earlier than the 1884 Irving one:
>
> 1883, April 10, Tuesday, Daily/Morning Oregonian [Portland], page 7, col. 2 headline "Satisfied Curiosity."

Excellent find, Stephen. Below is a slightly earlier instance of the
elaborate story which points to New York.

> b) Without reading all the old posts, imo, fwiw, I have the impression that the blog post omits likely relevant text.

That is definitely possible. As I noted in my post I did not cover all
the material raised on the list. The piece is already rather long for
the QI website although an academic article or monograph could be
considerably longer and more comprehensive.

[ref] 1883 March 11, The Daily American (The Tennessean), Satisfied
Curiosity, Quote Page 3, Column 2, Nashville, Tennessee.
(Newspapers_com)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
SATISFIED CURIOSITY.
New York Chaff.

It was a quiet-looking little man, with a frayed mustache, who got on
a Cass avenue car the other night; and he had a square wooden box
under his arm, with rows of holes punched in the top, which
immediately attracted the attention of a corpulent passenger, with a
cotton umbrella, who was sitting near the door.

"I suppose you have some wild animal in that box?" said he, tapping it
with his umbrella.

"Yes," replied the other, shrinking into a corner.

"You have a museum somewhere, maybe?"

"No," answered the small man, looking down at his feet.

"Well, might I ask what you have in that box?" questioned the fat man,
his curiosity increasing.

"Certainly," murmured the man with the box, looking like the chief
mourner at a funeral.

There was a dead silence for several minutes, when the corpulent man
spoke up somewhat impatiently, "Well, what is it?"

"It is a mongoose," said the melancholy man.

"A mongoose—what's that?" asked the man with the umbrella, leaning
over and eyeing the box curiously.

"It is an animal that exterminates snakes, replied the small man,
pulling his hat over his eyes.

"And what do you propose to do with it?" asked the fat man, opening
his eyes until they looked like watch-dials.

"I don't propose to do anything with it," answered the other
nervously. "It is for a friend of mine who has the delirium-tremens,
and wants something to kill the snakes he sees."

"But they aren't real snakes, you know!" exclaimed the fat man,
opening his mouth until the other could see his cork-soles.

"No, that's true," said the quiet man, getting up and putting the box
under his coat: "but then this isn't a real mongoose, you see!" And he
evaporated out of the door, while the fat man stared thoughtfully out
of the window at the flickering gas-lamps.
[End excerpt]

Garson




> Stephen
>
> co-author, Origin of Kibosh: Routledge Studies in Etymology
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <...>
> Sent: Thursday, March 1, 2018 6:39 AM
> To: ...
> Subject: [ADS-L] Hitchcock's MacGuffin
>
> Hitchcock's MacGuffin (McGuffin, Magoffin, Maguffin) was discussed on
> the list back in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2014. The Quote Investigator
> website now has an entry on the topic. The piece does not cover all
> the theories raised on the list.
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__quoteinvestigator.com_2018_02_28_macguffin_&d=DwIBaQ&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=8VSCnXxZKZ2WMSXEWyJjNvkn3cGgN4xou8A-lR3MLl0&s=ycKYG30tlHAzO91UzeCEScK1oLxZJb9l36f3Nvq4I2g&e=
>
> [Begin acknowledgement]
> Great thanks to Jonathan Lighter whose inquiry led QI to formulate
> this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to mailing
> list discussants Stephen Goranson, Jonathan Lighter, Robin Hamilton,
> Douglas G. Wilson, Dan Goncharoff, Victor Steinbok, and Joel S.
> Berson. Wilson and Goranson pointed to the 1925 citation.
> [End acknowledgement]
>
> Robin and Joel are greatly missed.
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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