[stylist] Fwd: A Phrase A Week - Security blanket

Fri Dec 30 16:11:30 UTC 2011

Interesting. I never knew about the custom of lining the inside of cribs
with blankets. This was before all of the safety regs and new designs after
kids got their heads stuck between the vertical wooden "bars" of the old
fashioned cribs. I don't remember anyone using the blankets in my lifetime
and wonder if the accidents happened only after the custom was abandoned.
Perhaps, mothers thought the blankets were to help avoid draft, and with
central heat, that became less of a problem, so they didn't think about the
blanketskeeping the kids in.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of James H. "Jim" Canaday M.A. N6yr
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 12:49 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Fwd: A Phrase A Week - Security blanket

one of the best of these I've seen.  
jc

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>From: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
>To: "James H. \"Jim\" Canaday M.A. N6YR" <n6yr at sunflower.com>
>Subject: A Phrase A Week - Security blanket
>Sender: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
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>
>Security blanket
>
>
>
>
>
>Meaning
>
>
>
>1. A small familiar blanket or other soft fabric item carried by a child
for reassurance.
>2. A form of harness for a baby's crib.
>3. All-encompassing military and political security measures.
>
>
>Origin
>
>
>
>The term 'security blanket', also known as 'comfort blanket', was coined by
Charles Shulz for his Peanuts cartoon strip. That's what most references
will tell you. It's always a pleasure to swim against the tide and here's an
opportunity. In fact, the term 'security blanket' wasn't coined by Charles
Shulz for his Peanuts cartoon strip. The derivation of 'security blanket'
involves a rather meandering tale, which goes like this:
>
>Security blankets were known to Americans in the 1920s and were at that
date overblankets which were clipped into babies' cribs to stop the
occupants falling out. The accompanying advert is from the New York
newspaper The Republican Press, November 1925, advertising fasteners for
such a blanket for 59 cents.
>
>The tale now moves on to World War II. The term 'security blanket' was then
used to refer to strict security measures that were taken to keep Allied
military plans from falling into the hands of the Germans. The term was
coined in that context by the US military while fighting in Europe. For
example, this report from the Alabama newspaper The Dothan Eagle, September
1944:
>
>Reports being issued at Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters sometimes
were as much as 48 hours behind the armies because of a security blanket
thrown over the operations.
>
>Incidentally, another article from the same page as the above is titled
'British Take Brussels', which is timely as this [28th December] is the only
week of the year that the headline could be recycled. For those of a
non-British persuasion, many in Britain pile their Christmas dinner plates
with brussels sprouts with some enthusiasm but reject them with distaste for
the rest of the year.
>
>The emergence of the military use of 'security blanket' about twenty years
after the use of the term in a domestic setting does suggest the possibility
that those coining a new meaning for it were the babies that were tucked up
under security blankets a generation earlier.
>
>Now we move on another step, to the use of the expression as 'a small
familiar comforter for babies and toddlers'. Now we get to Charles Shulz,
right? Not quite. Shulz drew the character Linus van Pelt with a comfort
blanket in the Peanuts cartoon strip in June 1954. It wasn't until 1956, in
Good Grief, More Peanuts, that the item was given a name by Linus:
>
>"This is a 'security and happiness' blanket. All little kids carry them."
>
>By that date the term had been in use elsewhere. The November 1954 issue of
the California newspaper The Daily Review included this piece by a staff
writer, under the name of 'Bev':
>
>'Security blanket. My younger child is one year old. When she finds a fuzzy
blanket or a fleecy coat she presses her cheek against it and sucks her
thumb.'
>
>
>----------
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