A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

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:
“You’re legally allowed to park in a handicap spot if you get back with your ex more than twice” (3/18)
“You can legally park in a handicap spot if you get back with your ex more than 2 times” (3/18)
Entry in progress—BP2 (3/18)
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“Don’t use a big word when a singularly unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression…” (3/18)
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Entry from February 27, 2011
“When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband and half the salary”

“When a man retires, his wife gets twice/double the husband and half the salary/pay/income/cash” is an old retirement joke, cited in print since at least 1964. The saying has been credited to William L. Mitchell, Social Security Commissioner in 1953 and from 1959-1962, but a contemporary citation has not been found in print. Golfer Juan “Chi-Chi” Rodriguez said the line in 1988 and often gets undue credit for the old saying.
 
     
Google News Archive
12 November 1964, Meriden (CT) Morning Record, “Helen Help Us!” by Helen Bottel, pg. 33, col. 4:
Dear Helen: I’m one of those who now has twice the husband and half the paycheck—in other words my husband just retired.
 
Google News Archive
7 February 1967, Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, “‘Word is for Horses, Mules,’ Says Retiree” by Howard Whitman, pg. 9, col. 4:
As one wife put it, “I’ve got twice the husband and half the income.”
     
Google Books
Rehearse Before You Retire
By Elmer Otte
Appleton, WI: Retirement Research
1970
Pg. 40:
In any event, pay attention Madam. It’s your retirement too. Everyone is weary of that trite old line about “less than half the income and more than twice the husband” but you had both better face it because that’s how it will be.
   
Google News Archive
30 March 1970, Charleston (SC) News and Courier, “Doing The Charleston” by Ashley Cooper, pg. 1B, col. 2:
FRANK H. RAMSEY writes that a certain Beaufort lady, wife of a retiree, is on record as defining her status as “having double the husband at half the pay.”
 
Google News Archive
8 October 1972, Sydney (Australia) Sun-Herald, “School that teaches you how to retired” by Geoff Allen, Pg. 111, col. 3:
Wives also benefited by attending the courses as many thought that things would go along jsut as it did when their husbands were working, but later found that they “had twice the husband and half the money.”
 
8 April 1984, Paris (TX) News, “Retirement seminar planned at PJC,” pg. 2D, col. 3:
“Everywoman,” a Dallas Community College District newspaper, quotes William Mitchell, the first administrator of Social Security as having said: “Retirement means twice the husband and half the income.” However, the changing roles of men and women tend to make this statement untrue.
   
Google News Archive
5 March 1988, Hendersonville (NC) Times-News, “The best quotes of the week” (Associated Press), pg. 2C, col. 1:
“When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband, but only half the income.”—Chi Chi Rodriquez.
     
Google News Archive
11 December 1995, Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel, Ann Landers column, pg. F1, col. 1:
GEMS OF THE DAY
Retirement means twice the husband and half the cash.
 
Dealbreaker: A Wall Street Tabloid
22 Feb 2008 at 5:19 PM/ Posted in:
Write-Offs
By John Carney
There’s an old saying on Wall Street: “When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband and half the salary.” Maybe at some point that just gets old.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityBanking/Finance/Insurance • Sunday, February 27, 2011 • Permalink


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