Ray, see: http://www.welchco.com/02/14/01/60/99/11/2903.HTM
where there are a couple of "free lunch" variants. According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia used the phrase (in Latin) in 1934. Looking around, I see this mayor certainly made people think about their assumptions with regard to free lunches etc. Cheers, Jake Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinis alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
