In this morning's paper which I read at lunch, there is an article about a curator at the Smithsonian who is looking for a pink slip. (Must be a slow news day -- this started on p. 1 below the fold.) This particular area of the museum has objects etc. related to work. They have actual samples of red tape, and other articles, but no pink slips. The curator in question (forget the name and I threw out the paper before I came back to the office) knows quite well what is meant by the term. He has tracked down the earliest usage of the term to ca. 1915 by a writer of pulp fiction. However, in spite of searches everywhere he can think of, he is unable to obtain an actual pink piece of paper which is a dismissal notice. With all the researching we all do on this board, perhaps we can help him. If it were possible to zero in on the use of the term to a specific industry or company, then one might be able to obtain a sample of the actual piece of paper. Failing this, we might be able to establish that there is some other meaning or derivation to the term and there never was any such paper. How about it?