Modern Usage pre-FG

Petarded showed in June 2005. There are very few usages on the internet that pre-date that (and that are not references to much older usages).

From the newsgroups, we have

Feb 17 1997, 4:22 pm by Buck Foss. on soc.motss
... Jess, the idea in my post, more obvious than the nose on your face, was that people
inside this group believe that they are not shallow and pedantic. ...

Dec 6 1997, 7:52 pm by William Lowe, on comp.sys.mac.advocacy:
... because the most persistent of the PC posters, people like Mueller, Hughes, Field,
and the like, are so quick with silly, shallow and pedantic flame bait ...