Date:  Fri, 14 Nov 1997 21:07:20 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Is "quit, quit now" a catchphrase?

Query: a Japanese correspondent of mine from the Joyce email list wondered
if the phrase "quit, quit now" is a current US catchphrase. I only recognize
it in a very general way, in that the formula "[imperative verb],
[imperative verb] now" seems desperately emphatic. Does anyone recognize the
phrase in question as a distinctive locution? My correspondent cites a quote
first, where the comic strip Beetle Bailey is apparently being discussed,
and then presents his question as well as a suggestion which I don't know
about:

>>IMHO Cathy and BB are pretty bleak. As for BB it is tired from
>>years and years of the same old, same old. Last year I read that Beetle
>>Bailey was going with a more politically correct theme. General
>>HalfTrack was going to turn over a new leaf. Quit, quit now....
>
>I rather suspect the writer in his last words, 'Quit, quit now', may be
>jokingly alluding to a certain phrase popular in the States (current in
>anti-smoking campaigns?) Any clue?

Reply to me on- or off-list; thanks in advance.

Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu