evidence: What are the origins of the gem, "If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog," a quote falsely attributed to the late Harry S. Truman, as I noted in The Solomon Scandals? I’ve been doggedly at work on the case for two years. No definitive answer so far. This immortal witticism or at least a version of it popped up in the 1975 play Give ’em Hell, Harry! ("You want a friend in life, get a dog!"). Later a Reagan man ventured into the territory. Gordon Gekko spoke a variant in the movie Wall Street, and now here’s another usage, by Carl Icahn, the corporate raider. Zelig Robinson, an ardent Truman fan who showed Mr. Buck Stops Here around Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956 when HST visited Harvard and Mr. Robinson was a law student there, kindly shared Icahn-related details from the 1980s-1990s. I’ll reproduce them with Mr. Robinson’s permission. [...] Mr. Robinson adds about Mr. Icahn’s takeover struggle: "The battle went on intermittently from the mid 1980’s into the early ’90s; Icahn never obtained voting control over U.S. Steel and finally took his greenmail and left in or around ’91. I doubt Truman ever uttered it [the dog quote] or that anyone who paid attention to Washington during Harry Truman’s lifetime ever heard the expression, from him or anyone else."