[Ads-l] on days ending in the letter Y

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Dec 12 01:25:46 UTC 2023


Is there a tacit allusion in all of these to the edict that one should only eat oysters in months containing the letter “R”?  Presumably that one was around a lot longer than the jocular version with days ending in “Y”.  I learned it from my parents in the early 1950s and no doubt it had a longer shelf life (unlike the oysters, one hopes) than that.  

LH

> On Dec 11, 2023, at 7:39 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Great work, Steven. Following your lead I found the citation below
> which indicates that the joke was circulating amongst some golfers by
> 1971.
> 
> Date: February 8, 1971
> Newspaper: Pacific Daily News
> Newspaper Location: Agana Heights, Guam
> Article: Pipe Dreams
> Author: Joe Murphy
> Quote Page 10, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com <http://newspapers.com/>
> 
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> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Speaking of days of the week, a fellow I know says that he likes to
> play golf just on those days ending with "y".
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 5:12 PM Steven Losie <stevenlosie at gmail.com <mailto:stevenlosie at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Variations on this quote by former NBA basketball star Jerry West were
>> printed in various newspapers at the end of 1974. It appears to have
>> originated in the 31 October 1974 edition of the L.A. Times, as quoted
>> below:
>> 
>> [begin quote]
>> Jerry West, asked how many days a week he plays golf since retiring from
>> basketball: "Only on days ending in 'y'."
>> [end quote]
>> Source: Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct 1974, p.E2, col.2 (ProQuest Historical
>> Newspapers)
>> Article title: Morning Briefing: Ali's Prediction of Upset Win Turned Out
>> Letter Perfect
>> 
>> [begin quote]
>> Former basketball star Jerry West told an interviewer that since his
>> retirement, he's been playing golf: "But only on days ending in 'y'."
>> [end quote]
>> Source: Hartford Courant, 29 Nov 1974, p.105, cols.3-4 (ProQuest Historical
>> Newspapers)
>> Article title: Berle 'Roasted' by Friars Club
>> Author: Earl Wilson
>> 
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