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

[Grant Barrett]

Republished in a slightly different form on June 11, 1937, in the _Victora
(British Columbia) Daily Times_.
https://archive.org/details/victoriadailytimes19370611/page/n3/mode/2up?q=%22drinks+and+the+table%27s+under+me%22

GB

On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 7:41 AM Grant Barrett <gbarrett at worldnewyork.org>
wrote:

> 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