[Ads-l] Quote: Politicians, like diapers, should be changed regularly

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Historian Ron Chernow addressed the White House Correspondents
Association dinner back on Saturday April 29, 2019, and he referred to
the saying in the subject line.

Barry Popik and I have entries about this quip on our websites (and I
started a mailing-list thread on the topic back in 2018). The words
are often incorrectly ascribed to Mark Twain.

Now the website entries have been updated with newly discovered
illuminating citations.

Politicians Are Like Diapers. They Should Be Changed Regularly
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/10/17/diaper/

“Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly, and for the
same reason”
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/politicians_and_diapers_should_both_be_changed_regularly_and_for_the_same_r

An interesting precursor in 1952 used "socks" instead of "diapers".

[ref]1952 September 10, Boston Traveler, (Letter to the editor from
John Q. of Roslindale), Letter title: No Re-Elections, Quote Page 26,
Column 5, Boston, Massachusetts. (GenealogyBank) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
If a politician needs to hold office but six years to get a pension
let's all go to the polls and see that he doesn’t hold office that
long. Office holders, like socks, should be changed often and for very
much the same reason.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 8:38 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Oct 17, 2018, at 6:18 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for your response, Peter. I did see that match in the
> > Newspapers.com database. Sadly, the date specified in the database is
> > incorrect. An examination of the page image reveals that the correct
> > date for this citation is September 10, 1993. I should have given a
> > warning.
>
> So not an antedate, but at least it presents as a nice instance of the "Needs Washed" construction, cozily situated within the predicted isogloss, within hailing distance from Pittsburgh.
> >
> > The Newspapers.com database contains many misdated newspaper pages, so
> > it is necessary to double-check the page image (as you know). This is
> > a danger with some databases, and the antedating quest
> > highlights/concentrates errors of this type. Peter is a brilliant and
> > careful researcher, and this post is not meant as a criticism.
> > Eagerness to quickly share a helpful citation is laudable.
> >
> > Garson
> > On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 5:55 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Slightly earlier, by Bill Hastings, a staff writer with the Indiana Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania), February 11, 1987, page 11 (newspapers.com), crediting a man named Willie:
> >>
> >> "Picking it up from a Reader's Digest fan, Willie, our ex-shoe shine boy, says some politicians are like diapers.  They both need changed often . . . and for the same reason."
> >> ________________________________
> >> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>

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