stealing forthright's meme

[xatalantax]

Comment to tell me some interesting fact, trivia, or other bit of knowledge you've learned in the past week or two.

Comments

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

I've heard that one but apparently it's not the case ..

http://www.barrypopik.com/article/70/twenty-three-skidoo-myth

http://www.word-detective.com/020798.html
According to this site the phrase was around in the 1890s too ..
'The late etymologist Eric Partridge reported that one of his correspondents felt that the phrase might have had its roots in old telegraphers' code, where common phrases were replaced by numbers. In this code, "30" sent in Morse code meant "end of transmission" (a notation still used by journalists to signal the end of a story), "73" meant "best regards" (still very much in use by amateur radio operators), and "23" meant "away with you!" This seems a far more likely explanation of the phrase.'