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We can only rarely see a proverb actually in the making (Archer Taylor, THE

ORIGINS OF THE PROVERB, 1985)Proverbs are invented in several ways: some are simple apothegms and platitudes

elevated to proverbial dignity, others arise from the symbolic or metaphoric use of

an incident, still others imitate already existing proverbs, and some owe theirexistence to the condensing of a story or fable

This literary history may begin in some apt Biblical or classical phrase, or it maygo back to a more recent source

Often some simple apothegm is repeated so many times that it gains proverbialcurrency: Live and learn; Mistakes will happen; Them as has gets; Enough is

enough; No fool like an old fool; Haste makes waste; Business is business; What's

done's done.The simple truths of life have been noted in every age, and it must not surprise us

that one such truth has a long recorded history while another has none. It is only

chance, for example, that There is a time for everything has a long history inEnglish,--Shakespeare used it in the Comedy of Errors, ii, 2: "There's a time for allthings,"--and it is even in the Bible: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to

every purpose under the heaven" (Omnia tempus habent, et suis spatiis transeunt

universa sub caelo,Eccles. iii, I), whileMistakes will happen orIf you want a thingwell done, do it yourselfhave, on the contrary, no history at all.

In many ways, proverbs are not so different from short quotations that have gained

a considerable currency of usage. The biggest difference is, of course, that theoriginator of a famous quotation is almost always known, while the coiner of most

proverbs is lost in anonymity. But one thing both verbal genres definitely have in

common is that they both start with an individual who formulates a memorablestatement that catches on among people, as it were.

As would be expected, some quotations might well become proverbs, a goodexample being Theodore Roosevelt's 1901 statement "Speak softly and carry a big

stick." There are some American speakers and writers who will "quote" this piece

of advice always referring to Roosevelt, while others have long forgotten this

association, citing it as an anonymous folk proverb. Another example would beCalvin Coolidge's "The chief business of the American people is business" from

1925, which has long become proverbial in the slightly altered form of "The

business of America is business."We do not offer this set of examples to ignite debate over the ultimate source of

any individual phrase, nor do we wish to demonstrate a static borrowing among

domains of creativity, nor even the priority of one medium over another in terms ofsignificance or precedence. Rather, we wish to demonstrate that, although many of

the phrases vary in their usage, they have all become traditional utterances that, fortheir speakers, encapsulate cultural truths and sum up recurrent social situations.

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May 2002 article reviewing the merits of utilizing smaller regional airports (a

potential alternative to expansion of Los Angeles International Airport), LosAngeles Times travel columnist Jane Engle summarized, If you build it, they

wont come. If they come, you had better build it.

While Trump did not, of course, invent this phrase, he did bring it to proverbial

status, inspiring an upsurge in its use in various contexts beyond employment.Indeed, Trump is reportedly even attempting to obtain a trademark on it (ABC

News Online, 3 March 2004), providing perhaps the ultimate evidence of thephrases widespread circulation.

Youre off theislandmeaning youre out or youre eliminatedreferences

Survivor, one of the first successes in this broadcast genre. A contrasting example

of the phrase appeared in an advertisement the United Way of Greater Los Angelesplaced in theLosAngeles Times (21 August 2000). The copy inverts the saying inits headline, None of These People Will Be Voted off the Island. Below this

banner, presumably intended to draw attention to the work of the United Way in anunexpected fashion, the full-page ad lists all donors who contributed a thousand

dollars or more to the organization.

Two other recent catchphrases associated with television programs also rapidlyfound their way into other media as well as popular usage. Both Is that your final

answer? and Youre fired! existed in American vernacular prior to their fifteenminutes of fame in the mass media, but at this writing, most Americans associate

them with Regis Philbin, host of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,

and Donald Trump, host ofTheApprentice.The former is a quiz show where contestants attempt to answer a series of

increasingly difficult multiple-choice questions leading up to the ultimate million-dollar question. To unnerve contestants, Philbin occasionally urges them to

reconsider their tentative response: Is that your final answer? On 31 May 2000, atwo-inch headline across the front page of the Los Angeles Times sports section

declared, Thats no final answer. Immediately above this banner, readers could

see that it referred to the score in game five of the western conference finals of theNational Basketball Association: Portland 96, Lakers 88. Just as the United Way

advertisement attracts attention by invoking a popular television show, thisheadline achieves much of its effect through its intertextual reference to Philbins

phrase, even though the two phenomena have no apparent relationship.

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Another instance of proverbial speech circulating among media and the vernacular

appears in a Los Angeles Times headline over a story about football players whoendorsed Campbells Chunky Soup having bad luck (either injuries or slumps):

Curses. . . No Soup for You! (Los Angeles Times, 8 December 2002). There was

no need for this column even to mention the television show Seinfeld. By the timethe story appeared, the phrase was circulating independently and with new,

metaphorical meanings. What began as a literal admonishment by a chef to the

character Elaine in the notorious Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeldbecame a

locution for denial in popular speech.