[Ads-l] When the Okies migrated to California, it raised the I.Q. in both states

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun Oct 17 01:42:45 UTC 2021


The statement in the subject line is often attributed to humorist Will
Rogers. Wikipedia has an article titled "Will Rogers Phenomenon":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers_phenomenon

New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon has received credit for a
similar quip:

[Begin excerpt]
When all those New Zealanders went to Australia at the end of the ’70s
the average IQ in both countries was lifted considerably.
[End excerpt]

While exploring this topic I found an evolving family of expressions
which is difficult to trace because of its variety. Here is a link to
the Quote Investigator piece containing an initial match in 1939:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/10/16/iq/

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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



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