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