[Ads-l] "A village is missing its idiot."

[Geoffrey Nathan]

I know this is not data but anecdote, but I'm sure I remember my father
saying this in a family gathering that could not have been later than the
nineteen eighties. Google Ngram viewer, strangely, finds no instances.
I admit I haven't searched our own archives, FWIW.

Geoff


Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
https://clasprofiles.wayne.edu/profile/an6993

geoffnathan at wayne.edu

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

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Heard a number of times.

2000 _Independent_(London) (Aug. 28) 2: A village is missing its
idiot....[O]ffice e-mail jokes...."This employee is depriving a village
somewhere of its idiot."

2001 _News_ (Stuart, Fla.) (Apr. 21) D1: Which village is missing its idiot?

Etc., etc.

JL


--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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