Date: 4/26/95 7:10 AM

To: Grant Barrett

From: American Dialect Society

I stand corrected on my earlier comments on "Mother of Pearl" - a colleague

has just jogged my mind back to reality when he said that expression was one

of W. C. Fields' "sanitized" movie curses (w. Godfrey Daniel & Shivering

Shinola). I am now fairly sure that is where I picked it up originally, or

from an old newsroom colleague of mine who knew ever line Fields ever

uttered.

jmiller