Date:  Wed, 26 Apr 1995 12:53:24 -0500

From:  Grant Barrett <gbarrett[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]KB.COM>

Subject: Re: Anodyne Expletives



    Reply to:  RE>>Anodyne Expletives

This will reveal a bit about me, but the only time I've heard most of these was

when I listened to old radio shows--as reruns in the 80s. Marion Jordan, who

played Molly McGee on the Fibber McGee and Molly show used to say "heavenly

days" and Jim Jordan, who played Fibber, was always spouting off with some clever

curse, usually alliterative, that evoked the anger and frustration of the

one-word, four-letter variety. Wish I could remember a few.



--------------------------------------

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