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'Hungry Horace' - origin?

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halcombe

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Mar 28, 2002, 2:57:59 PM3/28/02
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Heard today in the mouth of the lovely Jane Garvey (with reference to
her own snacking) "Yes, I *am* a Hungry Horace."

Great alliteration, a name with a suitably eclectic range of reference
(the Latin poet, Christian name with Southern English 1930s
lower-middle-class resonances) - but where does it come from?

Apparently, from my very brief researches, it is a computer game, and
was a strip cartoon in a 1970s British kids' comic 'Sparky'.

But does the phrase go further back?

Garp

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Mar 29, 2002, 11:11:42 AM3/29/02
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Wanna try alt.usage.english? They thrive on this sort of thing.

Garp

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Garp

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Mar 29, 2002, 11:41:09 AM3/29/02
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Well, I'll be... she did. Must drink less before Usenetting. Or complain
more about cross-posting.

Garp

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John Varela

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Mar 29, 2002, 5:12:41 PM3/29/02
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[Crossposting deleted]

On Thu, 28 Mar 2002 19:57:59 UTC, halc...@subdimension.com (halcombe)
wrote:

> Apparently, from my very brief researches, it is a computer game, and
> was a strip cartoon in a 1970s British kids' comic 'Sparky'.

FWIW, the letter H in "Dr. Seuss's ABC" goes:

Big H, little h
Hungry horse, hay
Hen in a hat
Hooray! Hooray!

Could Ms Garvey have been misheard when alluding to the Dr. Seuss rhyme?
Was "hungry horse" a pun on some obscure Brit thing?

--
John Varela

Tory Boy

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Apr 2, 2002, 2:05:31 PM4/2/02
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One of the first games to come out on the ZX Spectrum was called "Hungry
Horace"


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