Since something for the weekend was initially used conversationally, rather than formally, tracking down recorded evidence has presented a challenge. The OED first appealed to the public for assistance in researching the term in 2006, as part of the Balderdash & Piffle television series, resulting in the discovery of evidence from an unusual source—a Monty Python comedy record:

A herd of zebras visiting the same chemist to ask for something for the weekend.

1972 Wonderful World of Sounds in Monty Python’s Previous Record (gramophone record)

Unlike the traditional use of the phrase, the context here is a pharmacist rather than a barber. (The herd of zebras is also non-traditional.)

It is likely the phrase’s origins can be traced back even further than the Pythons; one viewer of the Balderdash & Piffle series recounted a vivid (but unfortunately unverifiable) memory of seeing the phrase in an advertisement at his barber’s in the early 1950s.  Now that the OED Appeals have gone online, we’d like to try again: can you find a use of something for the weekend in this sense from before 1972?

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The only evidence for this book’s existence that we have yet been able to find is a single entry in a bookseller’s catalogue:

Have you ever seen a copy of this book? Can you identify the ‘well-known connoisseur’ mentioned by the bookseller?

UPDATE (20 May 2013): Below is a scan of one of the original citation slips for Meanderings of Memory, for the word ‘inscriptionless’. Note that the person who copied the text originally wrote ‘by Nighthawk’ after the title, but this is corrected (in a different hand) to ‘“Nightlark”’, in the usual place where OED shows the author.

Citation slip from the OED files.

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The OBI [Oak Beach Inn] sponsored a ‘New Drinks’ contest in 1973, one in which Triple Sec had to be an ingredient.  Bobby ‘Rosebud’ Butts, a bartender, presented the prize-winning concoction.

1 part rum
1 part vodka
1 part gin
1 part tequila
1 part of Triple sec
splashes of sour mix and coke

Butts won a trip for two to the grand Miami Fountainebleu Hotel for creating the now-famous ‘Long Island Iced tea’ at the OBI East!

1998 Robert W. Matherson Scandal at Oak Beach Inn xxii., p. 212

Photo of Oak Beach Inn by Lucius Madeo, via Wikipedia

When researching the origins of the drink, OED researchers contacted the innovative barman; he confirmed the story, but didn’t have any documentation of the name that we could include in our entry for Long Island iced tea, which was published last year. The earliest evidence we were able to find for the name of the drink (which may or may not have the same origin as the recipe) doesn’t appear until the early 1980s. The entry records an example from 1982, but our researchers have since discovered a slightly earlier one from 1981:

All summer, people had been downing Long Island Iced Tea, and some unwary patrons who simply asked for ‘iced tea’ and got the L.I. version, told sad tales in tones that suggested they had staggered through the city afterwards.

1981 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant  15 Oct., p. C1/5

This leaves a gap of eight years between the first evidence of the name and the drink’s reputed invention in a Long Island nightspot. Can you help us find earlier evidence of Long Island iced tea?

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You wanna know what’s a mullet? Well I got a little story to tell About a hair style, that’s way of life.

1994 Beastie Boys Mullet Head (song)

It is often claimed that the term derives from mullet-head, a colloquial reference to a stupid person. But a 1995 article in Grand Royal, a magazine published by the Beastie Boys,  proposes several other, largely humorous origins, including a relationship with the mullet fish.

Can you help find an earlier example of mullet? Or any proof that it truly was coined by the Beasties?

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Acting in a proper grown-up play, being a lovie, doing the West End, ‘shouting in the evenings’, as the late Patrick Troughton had it.

1988 Stephen Fry in Guardian 2 Apr., p. 17

The offhand manner in which the term is used here suggests that the word may already have been somewhat established in this sense at the time. Can you help us find an earlier example? Please note that this word is attested in a variety of spellings; besides luvvie, the OED also records lovie, lovey, and luvvy.

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English touring team c.1859, with John Jackson seated at far right (via Wikimedia Commons)

The earliest evidence found by our researchers identifies Jackson as the demon bowler, but it dates from midway through his career:

Jackson, ‘the demon bowler’, is another member of this powerful team.

1861 Birmingham Daily Post 5 Sept., p. 3

Some sources suggest that Jackson first earned this name in the 1850s; he began playing for Nottinghamshire in 1855, and belonged to the All-England Eleven from 1857–1867. A short story by Alfred Crowquill entitled The Demon Bowler, about a literally demonic cricketer appearing in a dream, was published in 1847, so it is possible that that might have influenced the name. Can you help us find earlier evidence of Jackson (or any other human cricket player) being described as a demon bowler?

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One was that it appeared in a 1990s skateboarding magazine Big Brother, but we contacted the editor and so far we haven’t been able to confirm the reference.

So far, the earliest definitive evidence we have found is from the Albuquerque Journal of February 2004, but anecdotal evidence suggests it dates from before this date.

Can you find any printed examples before February 2004?

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Once they come out on top of the circuit, four additional levels are unlocked—Superpipe, I-70, Boarder-X, and Freeride.

1998 AM Newswire 29 Dec.

As the reference to ‘levels’ indicates, this quotation is about a snowboarding video game (‘X Games Pro Boarder’). But did the term really originate in the context of virtual, rather than physical, sport? It seems likely that earlier documentation for this sense of superpipe exists, perhaps in a non-mainstream snowboarding or skiing publication: can you help us find it?

Please note that we are only looking for earlier evidence for superpipe relating to snowboarding or skiing. There is already evidence in the OED from as early as 1907 for a more general sense of a pipe which is very strong, large, etc., so we don’t need to find pre-1998 evidence for this.

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One of the first things they pound into you during training is always to call the Agency the ‘company’… Never the C.I.A. or the Agency, even among yourselves.

1966 Esquire May, p. 82

Can you help us find an even earlier example?

It is sometimes claimed that this name originates from the association of the initials CIA with cia., which is the Spanish abbreviation of the word compañía, i.e. ‘company’. Is there any evidence to support this claim, such as an early example of the name appearing in Latin American contexts?

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Many young people are making deliberate decisions to take a year off, often referred to as the gap year. This year is frequently split between some form of voluntary service or travel and a period in industry.

1985 Times 9 Dec., p. 28

However, we have now found an earlier use in the title of a 1984 book by Joan Hills, titled Jobs in the ‘Gap’ Year. Moreover, we suspect there may be even earlier evidence for gap year than this, perhaps in a student newspaper or university information leaflet. Can you help us find it? The original 2001 entry from online is below, for reference.

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