Seems to have originated as something like "liars, damned liars and expert witnesses" and have been moved to statisticians later.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3324 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: But who coined the phrase Sat 02 Apr 2022, 11:57
I heard a 'nickelodeon' referred to as a machine for a peep show recently. I've always thought there a nickleodeon was a machine that played instruments from a punched roll of paper worked by a motor. A person could put a nickle in and a tune would play. There could be an alternative meaning I suppose.
I always thought the peep show machines were called What the Butler Saw. I never thought there was a real butler who allegedly saw anything though. I know Wikipedia is sometimes called Wikimisleadia but according to Wiki "The title of this feature became widely used in Britain as a generic term for devices and movies of this kind.[1][2]The phrase had entered British popular culture after the 1886 divorce case ofLord Colin CampbellandGertrude Elizabeth Blood. The trial hinged on whether their butler could have seen Lady Campbellin flagrantewithCaptain Shawof theMetropolitan Fire Brigade, through the keyhole of their dining room at 79Cadogan Place, London.[3]"
Green George Censura
Posts : 805 Join date : 2018-10-19 Location : Kingdom of Mercia
Subject: Re: But who coined the phrase Sat 02 Apr 2022, 14:57
"Nickelodeon" was orignally a term for what we might nowadays refer to as an Amusement Arcade, later an early form of cinema charging 5c admission. The machine for coin-operated music would probably have been a player-piano or an orchestrion. A few years ago Percy Grainger appeared posthumously at the Proms in the form of a player-piano roll. The most intensive use of player-piano was the late Conlon Nancarrow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zz665iwnfE