[Ads-l] I'm rubber....

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for sharing your work on this entertaining topic, JL. The
following 1934 match appeared in a Polish language newspaper. The
contraction “you’re” is misspelled as "your".

Date: March 8, 1934
Newspaper: Dziennik Dla Wszystkich (Journal For Everyone)
Newspaper Location: Buffalo, New York
Article: DZIAL OPIEKI
Quote Page 3, Column 5
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/article/dziennik-dla-wszystkich-rubber-glue/153739945/

[Begin excerpt]
Dawne przyslowie mowi: "I'm rubber, your glue, what you shoot at me
bounces back and sticks to you.".
[End excerpt]

According to Google Translate the prefatory phrase means: "The old
proverb says".

Garson

On Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 3:03 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I first heard this now well-known phrase in 1962. It was popularized
> further on "Pee Wee's Play House."
>
> 1937 _Hopewell [Va.] News_ (Mar. 12) 7 [Newspapers.com]:  When I was
> small...[o]ne of us would get angry and say something; the other would say,
> "I'm rubber, you're glue: whatever you say goes back and sticks to you."
>
> 1950 _St. Louis Globe-Democrat_ (May 26) 5 [Ibid.]:  The Governor, using
> the "I'm rubber and you're glue, and everything you say bounces back on
> you" technique, blames the Mayor.
>
> 1950 _Lebanon [Ill.] Advertiser_ (Nov. 24) 1 [Ibid.]: I'm rubber - you're
> glue; / Everything you say to me/ Bounces back and sticks on you.
>
> 1959 _Knoxville [Tenn.] Journal_ (July 29) 8: "I'm rubber,/ You're glue. /
> What is thrown at me bounces off and sticks on you."
>
> 1961 _Jackson County Floridan [sic]_ (Marianna, Fla.) 5 [Ibid.]: I'm rubber
> and you're glue - Everything bounces off me and sticks to you.
>
> 1961 _Arizona Republic_ (Phoenix, Ariz.) 18 [Ibid.]: I'm rubber and you're
> glue./ It bounces off me and sticks on you.
>
> 1969 _Tri-City Herald_ (Pasco, Wash.) 13 [Ibid.]:  I'm rubber And [sic]
> you're glue, and everything you say bounces back and sticks to you.
>
> Etc., etc.
>
> In pseudo-Shakesperean:
>
> MONTAGUE. I am of pliant, supple whalebone made,
> And you are glue.; the insults that you hurl
> Bounce off my bouyant frame and stick to you!
>
> -- William Shakespeare*, "Romeo and Juliet, Part 1 (cont.)," V, iii,
>  ll. 420-23, in H. Beard, C. Cerf, et al., *The Book of Sequels *(New York:
> Random House, 1990), p. 78.
>
> 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