"If/When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is an old saying. “If/When life gives you melons, you may/might be dyslexic” is a jocular variant that has been printed on many gift items, such as T-shirts, buttons ad posters.
“When life gives you melons, make melonade” was cited in print in 2003. “ If life gives you melons, you may be dyslexic” was cited in print in 2007.
“When life gives you melons, buy a bra” and “When life gives you melons, wear a low cut top”—“melons” are slang for “breasts”—are twists on this saying.
Google Groups: alt.music.gwar
Q for computer literate people
Phil the Scumdog
5/6/03
(...)
When life gives you melons, make melonade.
Doug Johnson
Doug’s t-shirt says...
POSTED ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2007 AT 11:39AM BY DOUG JOHNSON
(...)
333. If life gives you melons, you may be dyslexic.
Sickopedia
When life gives you melons… you know you’re dyslexic.
Joke added 5 years, 8 months ago by sparkyjcs in Illness and Mortality > Dyslexia
(January 2009.—ed.)
Twitter
Diane Carden
@dianecarden
When life gives you, “melons,” you know you are dyslexic.
Reply Retweet Favorite More
12:58 PM - 27 Mar 2009
Google Books
Garden Rules:
The Snappy Synopsis for the Modern Gardener
By Jayme Jenkins and Billie Brownell
Brentwood, TN: Cool Springs Press
2011
Pg. ?:
Of course, if Life gives you melons, you know it’s dyslexic. (Get it? Lemons, melons ...).
Google Books
The Mammoth Book of One-Liners
By Geoff Tibballs
London: Constable & Robinson Ltd.
2012
Pg. ?:
When life gives you melons, you know you’re dyslexic.
Google Books
If I Lie
By Corrine Jackson
New York, NY: Simon Pulse
2012
Pg. 151:
Blake stands over me in olive green board shorts and a T-shirt that says IF LIFE GIVES YOU MELONS, YOU MAY BE DYSLEXIC.
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.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps.
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.
This site is edited by Barry Popik.