Don't ask!
I'm looking for the origin of the phrase "what have you done for me lately?" I'm pretty sure it wasn't Janet Jackson's song - but I can't find any info about it - only that it's used everywhere. Any help?
This isn't much help, but Google News Archive shows several papers carrying the same article around Jan 19, 1954 containing:
"Besides, My realistic and logical Friends, What have you done for us lately? take, for instance, India"
and several other similar in the 50's and 60's.I can't be much help either, but I think "what have you done for me lately" derives from "What has he ever done for me?"--also seen as "What have you ever done for me?" There's a literature that I cannot point to that juxtaposes the two, in a way--something like, "For these hard guys, it's not important what you've done for them. What count's is what you've done for them LATELY."
SSI thought Safire would have that phrase in his political dictionary, but he didn't.
"Ask not what your country has done for you - ask what you can do for your country..."
Kennedy, I believe.
part of the same train of thought?
L