[Ads-l] "Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated" (1930, barely)

Fri Nov 1 14:16:04 UTC 2024

Fred Shapiro wrote:
> I can't find anything like this when I search the Daily Mail.

Thanks for searching, Fred. Apparently, the spurious newspaper name
was added at some point to increase credibility.
Garson

> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2024 10:07 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated" (1930, barely)
>
> Great work, Bonnie. The citation below is very late, but it is
> somewhat interesting because it suggests that the headline appeared in
> the Daily Mail instead of The Times. The credibility is low, but
> searching the Daily Mail archive is a reasonable goal. You may have
> already seen this citation.
>
> Date: April 30, 1954
> Newspaper: Truth
> Newspaper Location: London, England
> Article: Guide To the Guides
> Author: A. E. Cherryman
> Quote Page 34 (574), Column 1
> Database: British Newspaper Archive
>
> [Begin Excerpt]
> WORST FOG FOR EIGHTY YEARS, read the legendary Daily Mail headline,
> ENTIRE CONTINENT CUT OFF FROM BRITAIN. It is with this attitude in
> mind that one tackles the stream of guides to foreign travel ...
> [End Excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 7:35 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> <b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Since it's been a little quiet here, I'll share something with the
> > spurious-quotation-apocryphal-anecdote folks.
> >
> > We had previously placed "Fog in Channel; Continent Isolated" (and
> > variants) -- that famous and unfindable headline said to have been
> > printed in a London newspaper -- to the tail end of 1930. (Nobody has
> > yet found it in English newspapers.)
> >
> > The 31 December 1930 mention of this supposed headline deals with
> > "Channel fog" and the consequent "The Continent Isolated" that had
> > appeared in the unnamed "our chief national daily." (See far below.)
> >
> > The next appearance, in the January-March 1931 issue of a British
> > political journal (see
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flistserv.linguistlist.org%2Fpipermail%2Fads-l%2F2007-July%2F072575.html&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cfaa2f99f6fb2413f08f008dcfa1a024b%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638660236850222873%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5wE9yY3p7PYDLCLfKgS3jQDuUle0tkPcxH21f2lfHD8%3D&reserved=0)<https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-July/072575.html>,
> > notes that "when, not long ago, a great storm at sea damaged the
> > cables and communication with Europe became for the moment difficult,
> > *The Times* headline ran 'Continent Isolated.'"
> >
> > (I view these two sightings as contemporaneous.)
> >
> >
> > I don't think I've seen anyone mention this before, so I'll note that
> > a similar headline about an English weather event had appeared in an
> > American newspaper three years earlier.
> >
> > In late December 1927, "Blizzard In England Worst In 30 Years;
> > Continent Isolated," attached to a report filed out of London and
> > Paris by a correspondent (or correspondents) for Hearst's Universal
> > Service, showed up in The Atlantic City (New Jersey) Press.
> >
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fpress-of-atlantic-city-blizzard-in-engl%2F158202442%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cfaa2f99f6fb2413f08f008dcfa1a024b%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638660236850245024%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=gah2TaHbWqJqAp9CUPrxDcnZUfxsNRAD%2BLjnmkY6Utc%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-blizzard-in-engl/158202442/>
> >
> > There's no mention of fog, but it does hold that "[a]ll cross-channel
> > services have suspended" and that "[t]he Continent is virtually cut
> > off from England by the storm which has been raging over Christmas."
> > Further, "[t]he blizzard ... has interrupted all telegraphic and
> > telephone communication between France and England. Many land lines
> > are down in France, making the situation worse. The only means of
> > communication today is by radio."
> >
> > Other American newspapers printed abbreviated versions of this
> > Universal Service report and had similarly abbreviated headlines:
> >
> > CONTINENT CUT OFF FROM ENGLAND BY SNOW,
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-patriot-news-continent-cut-off-from%2F158204048%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cfaa2f99f6fb2413f08f008dcfa1a024b%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638660236850262464%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=vKSPV0kENsSlySVBex8PnnTtsgAv8Tah0vCn14YtWmY%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-patriot-news-continent-cut-off-from/158204048/>
> >
> > CONTINENT VIRTUALLY CUT OFF,
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-times-continent-virtually-cut-off%2F158197434%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cfaa2f99f6fb2413f08f008dcfa1a024b%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638660236850281989%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=jxtj4vWjTjK6CK%2Fp5blALT5MiQNysugjkGRE7%2B6nYrQ%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-continent-virtually-cut-off/158197434/>
> >
> > CONTINENT CUT OFF,
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.genealogybank.com%2Fdoc%2Fnewspapers%2Fimage%2Fv2%253A136E6A0F0DF56B38%2540GB3NEWS-13A966DC6DABF31F%25402425243-139DD76B1C44A712%25401-139DD76B1C44A712%3Fclipid%3Dxzzvgwjgkdgqmfntsbywgqoyzzzyhsbd_ip-10-166-46-115_1730405168263&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cfaa2f99f6fb2413f08f008dcfa1a024b%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638660236850299030%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=A5EK7KB%2F2aevJ7kibqQop%2BE%2F8VqvR3V5HFpqGe2YqHg%3D&reserved=0<https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13A966DC6DABF31F%402425243-139DD76B1C44A712%401-139DD76B1C44A712?clipid=xzzvgwjgkdgqmfntsbywgqoyzzzyhsbd_ip-10-166-46-115_1730405168263>
> >
> > At the same time, English newspapers described in great detail the
> > effects of this winter storm both in England and on the continent,
> > including disruptions of communications between the two regions, but
> > (not surprisingly) I haven't found instances of "continent isolated"
> > or "continent cut off." (I mean, so did other American newspapers, but
> > without that headline.)
> >
> >
> > Did this Christmas 1927 storm have something to do with anecdotes
> > emerging in print ca. 1930 about a London newspaper running such a
> > headline?
> >
> > Did this American headline, based on a Hearst Universal Service
> > report, somehow get attached to London newspapers by the end of 1930?
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 7:26 AM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> > <b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      "Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated" (1930, barely)
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Some time ago we had pushed mentions of this apocryphal headline back
> > > to early 1931 (see links below for two earlier posts on this).  For
> > > what it's worth, here's a sighting from the very last day of 1930.
> > >
> > > -- Bonnie
> > >
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > What gives "The Criterion" unusual value is the inclusion of foreign
> > > "chronicles" and reviews of foreign periodicals, represented in the
> > > present number by an Italian chronicle and review of periodicals from
> > > Russia and Germany.  "The Criterion" thus becomes a good antidote to
> > > the attitude which our chief national daily recently expressed so well
> > > in a time of Channel fog with its bold English headline, "The
> > > Continent Isolated."
> > >
> > > [From G.E.G.'s short piece on T.S. Eliot's "The Criterion," a literary
> > > and critical review. The Yorkshire Post, 31 December 1930, Page 4,
> > > Column 6.]
> > >
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
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> > >
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> >
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