Comments on: You Can Find Anything on eBay!

By: Bardiac

Bardiac — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:35:18 +0000

Adrian,

The OED shows this quotation from 1922 as the first use of the phrase:

1922 A[lexander]. WOOLLCOTT Shouts & Murmurs ii. 57 The Actor and the Streetwalker… The two *oldest professions in the worldruined by amateurs.

That seems late, but that’s what the OED shows. It scares me what I’ll bother to look up, and what the OED is willing to record.

Presumably, ebay is involved in EVERY kind of thing.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:41:20 +0000

I meant “find exactly what you want today.” Presumably, anyone searching for “the oldest profession” knows exactly what they want.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:40:32 +0000

On a similar note, just today, I was searching for the etymology of the phrase “the oldest profession” to describe prostitution, and Google turned up an ad that said “Looking for Oldest Profession? Find out exactly what you want today. http://www.ebay.com” I had no idea ebay was involved in that sort of thing…

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 03:03:16 +0000

I’ll definitely be there. Kesel has always been one of my favorite writers, not even couting Hawk & Dove.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 01:26:30 +0000

Hey, Scott, you should try to make the Karl Kesel chat at CBR tomorrow night!

http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2006/02/chats-should-be-good-karl-kesel.html

By: Lyle

Lyle — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:35:29 +0000

Okay, that’s even better than the Google ad for New and Used Pinot Noir on ebay…