# Come up and see my etchings.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060 "2004-03-13T08:08:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Strangelove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strangelove)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/1 "2004-03-13T08:08:16Z")

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I’ve always heard this as a cheezy 50’s/60’s way of asking a girl to your place for … well, whatever. When and why did this start? Did etchings all of a sudden become popular at one point? What kind of etchings; wax, glass, etc.? When did it get cheezy?

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**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/2 "2004-03-13T09:07:07Z")

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I can’t answer the specifics of your question, but I can tell you that this “line” was used on me once – and, by damn, the man actually had etchings!

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/3 "2004-03-13T13:53:12Z")

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When I first met my wife-to-be, I asked her if she wanted to come over to my place to look at my Uncle Scrooge Comics. She did, and was astounded when I actually SHOWED her my Uncle Scrooge comics. We’ve been married for 33 years.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/4 "2004-03-13T14:41:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Come up and see my etchings’ was, perhaps, orig. a US students’ catchphrase that rapidly gained a much wider currency: throughout the US, thence in Can. and UK and, prob. indicative of US influence in 1943-5,
> 
> …  
> in Susannah Centlivre’s comedy, ‘The Man’s Bewitched’ (1710), Act III, where Belinda, Maria, Constant and Lovely are in the study, and Lovely exclaims, 'Interrogating! Nay, then ‘tis proper to be alone; there is a very pretty Collection of Prints in the next Room, Madam, will you give me leave to explain them to you?’ Maria answers, ‘Any Thing that may divert your Love–Subject.’

[Want to come up and see my etchings?](http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/12/messages/1223.html)

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/5 "2004-03-13T14:44:35Z")

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Despite the odd coding, that’s all from the same source.

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**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/6 "2004-03-13T16:34:24Z")

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I distincting remember from the BBC ‘I, Claudius’ one of the more dissolute emperors scandalizing a family by offering to show a young women his (apparently obscene) paintings from Greece.

I don’t remember this in either of the books, but it’s been a really long time.

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**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-up-and-see-my-etchings/234060/7 "2004-03-13T19:59:09Z")

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I remember a movie reviewer mocking the movie _Clan of the Cave Bear_ by saying it was the kind of movie where one character asks another if they would like to go back to their cave to see their carvings.