[Ads-l] Quote: Three and I'm under the table. Four and I'm under the Host

[Grant Barrett]

Perhaps this is a nascent form of it:

1937 June 1 George Ross, _Reading (PA) Times_, "In New York": At  Mario's
Mirador, they were discussing liquor and its effect on the human anatomy.
¶"Two drinks," declared one, "and I'm under the table." ¶"That's nothing,"
a rival boasted, "two drinks and the table's under me."



On Mon, Oct 23, 2023 at 8:21 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> One more drink and I’d have been under the host!
> The line immediately above was ascribed to Dorothy Parker in the 1944
> book "Try and Stop Me" by Bennett Cerf. Fred Shapiro mentioned this
> quotation and ascription way back in 2010 in a mailing list thread.
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-July/101021.html
>
> The late Joel S. Berson presented a pertinent four-line verse
> attributed to Dorothy Parker.
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-July/101036.html
>
> Now, there is a Quote Investigator article on this topic.
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/10/23/more-drink/
>
> The first instance of the verse I have located appeared in 1956 within
> "The Engineers' Gatepost", a student publication from the
> undergraduate engineering students of the University of Alberta in
> Edmonton, Canada. The creator was anonymous, and Dorothy Parker was
> not mentioned:
>
> [ref] 1956 January 26, The Engineers' Gatepost: Undergraduate
> Publication of the Engineering Students’ Society, Moralscrapbook,
> Quote Page 8, Column 1, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta,
> Canada. (Internet Archive at archive.org) [/ref]
>
> https://archive.org/details/GAT_1956012601/page/n7/mode/2up?q=%22I%27m+under+the+table%22
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Nurse’s Lament:
> 'I wish I could drink like a lady
> (One or two at the most).
> Three and I'm under the table,
> Four and I'm under the Host.'
> [End excerpt]
>
> The first attribution of the verse to Parker that I have found
> appeared in the 1961 book "These Unlucky Deeds" by popular novelist
> Richard Martin Stern:
>
> [ref] 1961 (1960 Copyright), These Unlucky Deeds by Richard Martin
> Stern, Quote Page 140, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. (Verified
> with scans) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> What was that verse bit attributed to Dorothy Parker? "I cannot drink
> martinis/ Only one or two at the most./ After three I'm under the
> table/ After four I'm under my host." That summed up martinis pretty
> well.
> [End excerpt]
>
> [Begin acknowledgement]
> Thanks to mailing list discussants Fred R. Shapiro and the late Joel
> S. Berson in 2010. Shapiro pointed to the quotation in "Try and Stop
> Me". Berson presented an instance of the verse and remarked that
> Parker often received credit. Also, thanks to Troy Patterson who wrote
> an article on this topic in 2013 titled "Martini Madness" at "Slate".
> Patterson concluded that Parker did not create the verse.
> [End acknowledgement]
>
> Feedback welcome
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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