[Ads-l] mysterious antedatings of "foo fighter"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Great find. As we all know, Smokey's office wall sported a sign that said,
"Where There's Foo There's Fire."  If "foo fighter" also appeared in the
strip in '38-'39 (which is plausible), I'm surprised it hasn't turned up
via database yet. FWIW (zilch), I don't recall "foo fighter" in the strip
from ca1958-ca1962, when I was reading it faithfully - and when I first
learned of WW2 foo fighters.

JL

On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 8:56 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Early instances of “foo fighters” might be from the comic strip Smokey
> Stover which is mentioned in the article linked by LH.
>
> Date: March 11, 1939
> Publication: The Limelight
> Location: Palm Springs, California
> Article: The Week At The Racquet Club (Exclusive to the Limelight by
> BOGEARS)
> Quote Page 7, Column 2
> https://www.newspapers.com/image/749126778/
>
> [Begin excerpt = double check for typos]
> Highlight of the evening — Priscilla and John dressed up like Smoky
> Stover & Chief Cashew Nut — the Foo Fighters — in two of the cleverest
> getups yet seen in Palm Springs. It takes nerve or sumthing to walk
> into the Racquet Club at one A.M. with red underwear and a fireman's
> hat. on And Priscilla's must have been stolen from the fire department
> 'cause it was real.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is a claim from Toonpedia about "foo fighter".
> https://www.toonopedia.com/smokey.htm
> Topic: SMOKEY STOVER
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> . . . Smokey drove around in a two-wheeled firetruck known (to
> readers, at least) as The Foomobile . . .
> The expression "foo fighter", a term used by UFO enthusiasts, is
> traced to Smokey Stover, who often called himself a foo fighter when
> anyone else would have said "firefighter".
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 8:25 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I first heard about WW2 foo fighters in 1960 or so
> >
> > They were "explained" as cockpit reflections, the moon, Venus, and St.
> > Elmo's fire.
> >
> > So obvious....
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 8:11 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Apparently a WWII (or, the above suggests, a slightly pre-WWII)
> designation
> > > for what we now call UFOs.  Who knew?  (Well, probably some of you,
> but not
> > > me.)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/lets-talk-about-foo-fighters-no-not-dave-grohls-band/
> > >
> > > (There's also a wikipedia page, but nothing that would predict
> occurrences
> > > as early as 1939, much less in Texas and Indiana. But typos seems
> unlikely.
> > > Maybe time-travelers--there are a lot of time-travel scenarios set
> during
> > > that period.)
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > > On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 4:33 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > OED: 1945
> > > >
> > > > 1939  _Tyler [Tex.] Morning Telegraph_ (July 15) 6: Standings in the
> > > Peewee
> > > > baseball league...Dead End Kids...Junior
> > > > Trojans...Wildcats...Dooflunkies...Foo Fighters.
> > > >
> > > > 1939 _Franklin [Ind.] Evening Star_ (Sept. 22) 4: Volley
> ball..."Black
> > > > Panthers," "Golden Panthers," "Foo Fighters," and "Sterling Flashes."
> > > >
> > > > Weird typos?  Or just weird?
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > > --
> > > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > > truth."
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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