I should have stood in bed. This still-heard expression was coined by fight manager Joe Jacobs after he left his sickbed to watch the 1935 World Series (see we wuz robbed). Stood for stayed is first recorded in a Dorothy Parker short story “Yussel the Muscle” (1939) and dates back farther than that. I should have stood in bed was used as the title of a 1941 song and a 1942 play was entitled They Should Have Stood in Bed. “I Should Have Stood in My Neighborhood” was a 1943 song. |