OED has another thing coming

The latest round of draft entries for the New Edition of the OED has been released online, and one of the additions is our old friend "another thing coming":
(Under , n.1)
chiefly Brit. and Irish English. (arising from misapprehension of s.v. THINK n. 2b) = s.v. THINK n. 2b.
1981 J. SULLIVAN Only Fools & Horses (1999) I. 1st Ser.Episode 1. 57 Del. If you think I'm staying in a lead-lined nissan hut with you and Grandad and a chemical bloody khazi you've got another thing coming. 1994 I. BOTHAM My Autobiogr. i. 23 After their conversation with Ted they knew they had another thing coming. 1998 A. O'HANLON Talk of Town (1999) I. iv. 60 If you think you're getting into my knickers, you have another thing coming.
I was surprised that they marked it as "chiefly Brit. and Irish English", considering Areff's survey results from 1999:

http://groups.google.com/groups?th=822554d5793b8e2a

By country: think thing knows "something else coming"
US 22 17 7 Canada 5 2
UK 17 7 4 Ireland 1
Australia 3 3
OED seems to suggest that "another thing..." began its life as a Rightpondian variant of the Leftpondian "another think..." and then spread from there. But as Areff has noted, Proquest has cites for "another thing..." in the New York Times and Washington Post back to
1971 (). That's afull decade earlier than the first OED cite, apparently taken from the script for an episode of the BBC comedy "Only Fools and Horses" in its first season (1981). (Only a year later, Birmingham beat combo Judas Priest would popularize the "thing" variant on both sides of the Atlantic with their ditty, "You've Got Another Thing Comin'".)

A search on Amazon finds even earlier US citations. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , first published in 1962, has this:

"All right, by God, let's just figure out what I'd have to toss through that screen to bust out. And if you birds don't think I'd do it if I ever got the urge, then you got another thing coming."
(p. 108 of the 2002 Viking Penguin edition)

Also, the American playwright Robert Ludlam wrote the following in his
1970 play "Bluebeard":

If you ladies think he can marry the whole female sex, you've got another thing coming.
(pp. 258-9 of The Mystery of Irma Vep and Other Plays )
But even earlier is a citation from Final Curtain (first published in
1947) by New Zealand-born Dame Ngaio Marsh:

"If you think I'm going to hang round here like a bloody extra with your family handing me out the bird in fourteen different positions you've got another thing coming." (p. 44 of the 1998 St. Martin's Paperbacks edition)
Marsh split her time between New Zealand and England, and Final Curtain (like many of her novels) is set in England. So perhaps "another thing..." did emerge in the UK first. Still, I think it's misleading to mark it as "chiefly Brit. and Irish English". Paging Dr. Sheidlower...