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

Thu Apr 13 13:50:15 UTC 2023

The text of most comic strips is not presented using a standard
typeface. Often, the optical character recognition (OCR) algorithms do
not process and index the text of comic strips correctly.

For example, the following page (see paywalled link) has a Smokey
Stover comic strip. The strip contains the words "big". "rattle",
"notice", and "goofy". If you electronically search for these words on
the page you will produce the message "No matches found". The words in
the comic strip are not being recognized and indexed.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/204427147/

Technologically, it is now possible to recognize and index text in
comic strips. Capable OCR algorithms exist. But newspapers.com and
other databases are doing a poor job. Occasionally, comic strip text
is recognized and indexed.

Here is a description of the “Foo Craze” in 1938.

Date: December 1, 1938,
Newspaper: Jackson's Hole Courier
Newspaper Location: Jackson, Wyoming
Section: The Rustler
Article: Have You Got the Foo Craze?
Author: S.H.
Quote Page 5, Column 4
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122788433/foo-craze/

[Begin excerpt - check for errors]
HAVE YOU GOT THE FOO CRAZE?

The Foo craze hasn't seemed to hit this community as hard as others
I've seen. Never have I forgotten and never will I forget one town in
particular. It was about one thousand population and not one person
had escaped the Foo mania. All letters were addressed to people with
at least five Foo's in between the words. There were Foo clubs and Foo
stores, in fact somebody suggested naming the town Foo.

Now, what is Foo? Foo, to the best of my knowledge, was originated by
Bill Holman, an artist that draws a comic strip entitled "Smokey
Stover." It was hard to get the word started on its way to popularity,
but once it caught it spread like wild fire. In fact it became so
popular that Mr. Holman had to give it some brothers and sisters.
Hence came Goo and Sloosh and many other just as crazy phrases.

Foo has no particular meaning but is used by Mr. Holman as a
substitute for many a crazy wise-crack. For example, he will take a
well known saying such as "Give me liberty or give me death," and
change it to "Give me Foo or give me Goo." "What the best dressed Foo
will wear," is another example.

Now, you ought to have a fairly clear idea as to how Foo started, what
it is and how it has progressed. At this point we'll go back to the
first and main question, "Have you got the Foo craze? If you haven't,
don't get it. If you have--well, nobody is perfect.
S.H.
[End excerpt]

On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 7:38 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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

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