# Sayings that aren't as old as you think they are **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 18, 2024, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735 "2024-05-18T12:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735/41 "2024-05-20T14:36:40Z")
Not exactly a saying, but I was surprised to learn that the “can you hear me now” started after 2000. I could have sworn I heard it earlier. > **[AdWatch: Verizon | Can you hear me now?](https://thinkmonsters.com/speakinghuman/media/adwatch-verizon-can-you-hear-me-now/)** > > Watch the original Verizon commercial that started the "Can you hear me now?" catchphrase phenomenon. Originally titled "Test Man" ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735/42 "2024-05-20T16:12:48Z")
[Obligatory New Yorker cartoon link.](https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoon?searchID=CC45212) ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735/43 "2024-05-20T23:54:08Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Not exactly a saying, but I was surprised to learn that the “can you hear me now” started after 2000. I could have sworn I heard it earlier. No evidence, but yeah, I always thought the commercial was playing up a common phrase used by people walking around trying to get a better signal. I recall being embarrassed saying it so I had to switch to something else, because it just seemed like echoing the commercial. Of course memory is flawed. I know such phenomenon is fairly common when studying the origins of words or phrases. The first recorded use in newspapers, etc. may be years after the phrase began being used, and only was recorded because it _was_ common. The phrase could date back to 1998 or something! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735/44 "2024-05-21T00:07:36Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > That 1865 quote, on the other hand, is part of a dedication with a very different tone: “To you, our first-born, my sweet ‘summer-child’, I dedicate this unpretending story. It will serve, in future years, to remind you of your sunny girlhood, when we talked over its characters and scenes […]” > > No ironic mix of tenderness and foreboding there. No looming menace of periodic catastrophe and hardship that the innocent “summer-child” can’t be expected to understand yet. A much more simple and straightforward affectionate tribute to one who is, literally, a child in summer. It’s right there in the quote. “It will serve, in future years, to remind you of your sunny girlhood” seems pretty clearly to imply that the future years will not be so sunny. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > “We have met the enemy and he is us” is from 1970, from Walt Kelly’s poster for the first Earth Day. A lot of people seem to think he used a familiar quote and just illustrated it, but he appears to have originated the phrase. That phrase, he originated, but he was riffing off of the much older “We have met the enemy and he is ours”, which dates back at least to Admiral Perry. > [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Not exactly a saying, but I was surprised to learn that the “can you hear me now” started after 2000. I could have sworn I heard it earlier. Well, that obviously had to be after cell phones became mainstream. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735/45 "2024-05-21T00:33:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Admiral Perry Did he get a post-mortum promotion? Because he was never an admiral during his lifetime. No American admirals existed until Farragut in the Civil War. That itself is much later than most people would expect. Maybe we can start a new thread about things that aren’t as old as you think they are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-that-arent-as-old-as-you-think-they-are/1001735.md?page=2)