The Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone:Where Have You Been All My Life?

In the previoius post I referenced "the self-licking ice cream cone," hitherto unknown to me. Turns out it has a history that goes at least back to 1992. Here's an early citing, reported at
Double-Tongued Dictionary (link):

1992 Marvin Ott Wall Street Journal (Dec. 23) “Reform Task for Woolsey at the CIA” p. A8: Analysts are concerned not with a policy audience, but with the readership among their peers in the intelligence community and with fulfilling their quota of reports and assessments. Despite an elaborate “requirements” process, most of the topics that analysts address are selected by the DI itself. It is the proverbial “self-licking ice cream cone.”

Interesting that today's like, like this early one, comes from the intelligence biz. But as an audience ingrown and self-referential, I don't suppose they are any more claustrophobic than, say, academic critical theory. The only skill of the political science professor, my friend Ed used to say, is to train other political science professors. Indeed, now that I think of it, I recall a guy who knew 50 years ago who used to show cows at county fairs for a living. I remarked that they must be good eatin'. Nah, he said, these cows are so specialized that they are good for showing and nothing else. I'm sure many other examples are possible, and I wonder: can it be that we live in a world where SLICCs are more prevalent than they were before? Or are we just now noticing?

Here’s a sort-of response:

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

—William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73