Thanks for the info, but your examples don’t really help me understand why it would be common enough to slip out in 2017.
I don’t know, not being alive, but I imagine the phrase was used more often in America in the 40s and 30s as well, hence it’s use in literature. I suspect you’re right that in certain locales, it would have been still cropped up in the 80s.
But like I said, in my entire adult life I have never heard anyone actually USE the phrase that I was just barely aware of. I wouldn’t have been too surprised if someone from the South of America used it today. But still surprised that what would be considered an obscure term today in America would be uttered in the UK by a politician, no less.
Of course that isn’t to say I am surprised someone in the UK said something racist or used the N-word. I remember going there many years ago and they had posters reminding soccer fans not to hurl racists insults at the players.
