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Re: "for the birds"

Posted by antiquary on June 13, 2006

In Reply to: "For the birds" posted by Mario E. Hernandez on June 13, 2006

: Can someone tell me where the expression "for the birds" as when we say "this weather is fo the birds" came from?

J D Salinger employed the phrase 'strictly for the birds' in Catcher In The Rye (1951), and that seems to be the earliest known usage. In 1957 a writer in the journal American Speech wrote, 'The metaphor alludes to birds eating droppings from horses and cattle'. Nice.