[Ads-l] Milli-Helen: The quantity of beauty required to launch exactly one ship

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun May 9 03:50:56 UTC 2021


An article about the humorous unit described in the subject line has
now been posted to the Quote Investigator website.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/05/08/milli-helen/

A discussion on this topic occurred on this mailing list way back in
2011, and another occurred last week. Here is the somewhat lengthy
acknowledgement accompanying the QI article.

[Begin acknowledgement]
Great thanks to the 2011 and 2021 mailing list discussants on this
topic including: Stephen Goranson, Jesse Sheidlower, Wilson Gray,
Laurence Horn, Dave Hause, Pete Morris, and David Daniel. The 2011
discussion inspired QI to initiate this research and ultimately led QI
to create this article.

Thanks to Pete Morris who found the crucial 1954 match in "Punch"
magazine. Thanks to Jeffrey Graf at the Herman B Wells Library of
Indiana University, Bloomington. Graf accessed and verified the match
in "Punch". Thanks to Stephen Goranson who pointed to the February 23,
1958  citation in "The Observer". Thanks to Jesse Sheidlower who
identified the February 26, 1958 citation in "The Manchester
Guardian".
[Begin acknowledgement]

Garson O'Toole

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list