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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

1161.0. "Fat ladies and their songs" by 51564::WESTERBACK (Mai pen rai!) Thu Dec 21 1995 02:03

    It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings...
    
    I know the opera connection here, but does anyone know when/how/by whom
    it was first used?
    
    Hans
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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1161.1DRDAN::KALIKOWDIGITAL=DEC; Reclaim the Name&Glory!Thu Dec 21 1995 05:075
    No answer, but along Rt. 101 in Silicon Valley there are billboards for
    some new yuppiemobile, one of which features a couple overinflated
    Teutonic opera-singers -- he in full horny Viking headgear, she in
    braids & glistening breastplates.  And the legend is DUAL AIRBAGS.
    
1161.2AUSSIE::WHORLOWMy Cow is dead!Thu Dec 21 1995 21:048
    G'day,
     Was it not attributed to Yogi Beara, the ?sport? coach...
    
    
    or Groucho Marx
    
    regads
    derek
1161.3SMURF::BINDEREis qui nos doment vescimur.Fri Dec 22 1995 07:248
    I believe "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" is usually attributed
    to Leroy "Satchel" Paige, one of the finest pitchers ever to play
    baseball - he was black and was stuck in the Negro leagues until very
    shortly before the end of his career.  He pitched two seasons for the
    Cleveland Indians in '49 and '50, but by then he was too old.
    
    The version attributed to Yogi Berra, the great New York Yankees
    catcher, is "It ain't over till it's over."
1161.4TP011::KENAHDo we have any peanut butter?Fri Feb 02 1996 09:5218
    According to Bartlett's:
    
            "Church ain't out till the fat lady sings."
    
    And the source is...(drum roll).... Anonymous!  :-)
    
    It figures.
    
    Actually, this particular quote, says Bartlett's, came from "Southern
    Words and Sayings" by Fabia Rue Smith and Charles Smith (1976). 
    There's a footnote to this version of the quote that says:
    
    "Proverbial lore current in several variant forms, the most familiar and
    recent of which is: The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings. -
    Daniel John Cook (1926- ), television newscast, San Antonio, Texas
    (April 1978)"
    
    So, like Topsy, this phrase probably "just growed."
1161.5See also 856.*FORTY2::KNOWLESPer ardua ad nauseamMon Mar 11 1996 06:374
    The author of .0 made the elementary mistake of not doing a
    DIR/TIT="Chanting Adipose Feminines"
    
    b