The Origins of ‘Get a Life!’

Re “Get a Life!” (July 26): I enjoyed Nikki Finke’s article very much, but the statement “Get a life!” has been around a lot longer than she may realize. Perhaps a sketch on “Saturday Night Live” helped popularize the expression, but my ex-girlfriend’s best friend used to say it frequently in 1979, with the same intent it has today.

If she read the piece and some of the dates presented therein for this phrase’s possible origins (1986, 1988) . . . well, you know what she would have said.

MIKE HARRINGTON

Van Nuys