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

Fri Dec 30 16:24:35 UTC 2011

yes,
amazing how bright they actually were in the old days.  
and you did a good job spelling out the "unintended consequences" of stopping the "overblankets."  
I'd never seen one of those either.  
I like how the writer of this column traces the origin and process of the phrase.  interesting this first had a wartime application after the direct meaning.  
jc

At 10:11 AM 12/30/2011, you wrote:
>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>
>>Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:57:10 GMT
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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.'
>>
>>
>>----------
>><http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tudor-phrases-and-sayings.html>
>>[]
>>Santa brought you a Kindle for Christmas? Try it out with my book on
><http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tudor-phrases-and-sayings.html>The
>Phrases and Sayings of Tudor England. 
>>
>>----------
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