That's Not Too Many

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An oft-quoted allusion to a piece by the late Charles Burbee. He collected ragtime player piano rolls and reported, in his fanzine, Burblings 1 (1947), having heard from his player-piano repairman about someone who collected player pianos. He owned 50. Burb quoted himself as replying, "Fifty player pianos ... that's not too many."

After Terry Carr and Ron Ellik republished the piece in The Incompleat Burbee, a 1958 anthology of Burbee's writings (online here, p. 32), it crept into repeated fannish usage – and, for a while, it was difficult to mention any number larger than three without someone else popping up to say, “That's not too many.”



Fanspeak 1958
This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.