“A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory” is a saying that has been put on gift items such as bumper stickers and T-shirts since at least 1996. It’s not known who coined the saying.
Palmetto Trading
A Bartender is a Pharmacist with Limited Inventory T-Shirts and Gifts
29 November 1996, Daily Herald (Chicago, IL), “Best way to survive the holidays, laugh” by Jack Mabley, pg. 16:
“A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.”
Google News Archive
8 May 1997, Deseret News, “Bumper crop of bumper stickers might drive you to distraction,” pg. C9, col. 3:
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
Google Books
Leon Schuster’s lekker, thick South African joke book
By Leon Schuster
Halfway House, South Africa: Zebra
1998
Pg. 68 (bumper stickers):
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
Google News Archive
14 March 1998, The Day (CT), pg. E5, col. 2:
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“The ‘W’ in Wednesday stands for wine” (4/24)
•“Reminder: Communism is when ugly deformed freaks make it illegal to be normal then rob and/or kill all successful people…” (4/24)
•“Communism is when ugly deformed freaks make it illegal to be normal then rob and/or kill all successful people…” (4/24)
•“Boss: You we’re gone 7 hours to smoke? Me: It was a brisket.” (4/24)
•“This lady just asked the waitress if the salmon was grass fed. I literally have no idea what went wrong in the world” (4/24)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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