Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 09:46:49 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Shocked. SHOCKED!



"I'm shocked--SHOCKED--that there's gambling here."

--CASABLANCA



I'm shocked--SHOCKED--that the New York Times Magazine ran another dull

"On Language" column. Heck, I can write better in my spare time, and without

any assistants.

Guest columnist Jack Rosenthal (Safire is on vacation) states that

CASABLANCA's "shocked-SHOCKED!" cliche dates from the early '90s. As does

Safire, he simply uses Nexis, then puts the column to bed.

Stewart Klein of Channel Five's Ten O'Clock News (now Fox News) reviews

movies for that highly rated program in New York City. In one of his movie

reviews in the 1980s, he used and explained "shocked-SHOCKED!" Anchor John

Roland loved it and repeated Stewie's "shocked-SHOCKED!"

It clearly predates the first Nexis use, but Rosenthal never asked me.

I'm shocked. SHOCKED!