Comic Lewis gets the credit 'from hell'

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Comedian Richard Lewis has been credited with coining the familiar phrase "the (fill in the blank) from hell" in the authoritative "Yale Book of Quotations."

Yale University Press added the phrase to its collection of vernacular, which has become an all-purpose description of bosses, dates, neighbors, trips and countless other occasions.

Yale said in a news release that the phrase was traced back to Lewis' early stand-up comedy routine in which he drew laughs telling the audience about "a date from hell" that led into jokes about relationships in general.

Lewis told Yale he was "in heaven" to be immortalized in the quote book.