[Ads-l] RES: Lewis Carroll Misquotes

[Laurence Horn]

Is the not-quite-Carroll line (with either “hurrier” or “hurrieder") in fact from the 1951 Alice in Wonderland animated movie? The date would match up with the Google Books cites, but the variant from 1943 gives one pause.

> On Mar 16, 2021, at 5:55 PM, David Daniel <dad at COARSECOURSES.COM> wrote:
> 
> When I was a kid (1950s) my dad used to say "The hurrier I go the behinder I
> get," as do I to this day, and perhaps my kids will continue on. Until
> today, I thought he had made it up! 
> DAD
> 
> 
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Lewis Carroll Misquotes
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> 
> Geoffrey Nathan wrote:
>> Interestingly enough, the article misquotes one of the quotes, by 
>> omitting a crucial morpheme. In the one about being behind. I recall 
>> bumper stickers and cute plaques to put up in your kitchen or office 
>> that actually say
>> 
>> 'The hurrieder I go the behinder I get.'
> 
> Different versions of this saying have been circulating.
> 
> 1943 Jan 30 The harder I work the behinder I get.
> 1958 Nov 23 The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
> 1959 Mar 02 The hurrieder I work the behinder I get.
> 
> Date: January 30, 1943
> Newspaper: The Detroit Free Press
> Newspaper Location: Detroit, Michigan
> Article: Behind the Front Page
> Author: FP Staff
> Quote Page 15, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> BEHINDER--Emmaleta Hicks clerical worker at the Michigan Central Terminal,
> reports this scrap of conversation between two truck drivers in the middle
> of the daily parcel blitz:
> "Ya gettin' caught up with your work. Bill?"
> "Naw," replied Bill, dejectedly, "the harder I  work the behinder I get."
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> Date: November 23, 1958
> Newspaper: The Indianapolis Star
> Newspaper Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
> Article: The Things I Hear!
> Author: Lowell Nussbaum
> Section 2, Quote Page 5, Column 2
> Database: Newspapers.com
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> GENE MEIHSNER, production man for Caldwell, Larkin, et al., collects
> slogans. His latest:
> "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get."
> [End excerpt]
> 
> 
> Date: March 02, 1959
> Newspaper: Chattanooga Daily Times
> Newspaper Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee
> Article: Down The Lane - Not So Goofy
> Author: Mouzon Peters
> Quote Page 15, Column 3
> Database: Newspapers.com
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> City Editor Ed Sussdorff says I misquoted him. He claims he did not say
> anything so goofy as "The faster I work the behinder I get." What he really
> said, he claims, was "The hurrieder I work the behinder I get." So the
> record's now straight and my work is behinder than it's been in some time.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> There is a match for "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get" in Google Books
> (GB) within a periodical called "Executives' Digest". The GB date is 1951,
> but when you probe it with 1951, 1952, =E2=80=A6, 1958, 1959 snippets
> suggest that the bound volume contains issues from throughout the 1950s.
> 
> Garson O'Toole
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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