His wife (Penelope Chetwode) wasn't involved in the interview but I suspect she wouldn't have been concerned.

She spent much of her life away from him since she was an adventurer (ess?) and was frequently out of the country on some sort of expedition.

You can find out a little more about Betjeman in this new book by Bevis Hillier (who was at school with me!) http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,6121,823534,00.html

Richard English

Richard English: John Betjemen, shortly before he died was asked whether he had any regrets. His answer? "I think I'd have liked to have had more sex."
wordnerd: To which Ms. Betjemen reacted how?

Wordnerd, what is the antecedant to which your word "which" refers: to the gentleman's comment, or to sex?

I presume the former because, if you were asking the latter, the answer to your question would be clear from Mr. Betjemen's remark.

To me the appeal of NASCAR is that it tends to reduce the total number
of rednecks with a pleasant regularity!

We didn't mention Martin Luther King Day on Monday because that was the day that Morgan died. However, I did want to share this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough, and morality enough, to cut off the chain of hate."

The administration of Chicago Medical School (most assuredly not the University of Chicago!) is planning to rename the school to the Rosalind Franklin University of Science and Medicine! How appropriate for this 92 year-old "quirky" school, as the Chicago Tribune calls it. In 1930 Chicago Medical School was among 90 medical schools recommended for closing because "they could not meet accepted standards." Dr. John J. Sheinin, a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant, was hired to close down Chicago Medical School. However, he did the opposite and became its dean from 1932-1966. He was upset with the quota system for Jewish applicants, and he had a vision of creating a medical school open to anyone who was qualified, regardless of race or religion.

Chicago Medical School is called "scrappy" by the Tribune, in comparison to Northwestern, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois, Chicago. While Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine received $103 million from the Feinberg family for renaming their school, Chicago Medical School paid the Franklin family $10 for the right to use her name, which they promptly donated back to the school! Yet, many good doctors graduate from Chicago Medical School (7,500 applicants; 185 places. 57% women), and they ranked second in the nation for graduating Asian students and 14th for graduating African-American students.

Kudos to Chicago Medical School!

[This message was edited by Kalleh on Tue Jan 27th, 2004 at 11:44.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kalleh:
The administration of Chicago Medical School While Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine received $103 million from the Feinberg family for renaming their school, Chicago Medical School paid the Franklin family $10 for the right to use her name, which they promptly donated back to the school!

Kudos to Chicago Medical School!

---

And to the Franklin family!

Bill Bryson presents a good account of Rosalind Franklin's contrubution to the race to find the structure of DNA in his book, "A Short History of Nearly Everything".

Tinman

Quotations thread

I thought I was reviving a thread, but it seems as though we had gotten off subject a little...what else is new?

I have been reading about Samuel Johnson lately and thought this quote a fun one (those of you familiar with talk on another word board may even find it funnier. ):

It is surely better a man should be abused than forgotten. ~ Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson loved insults, and boy was he good at them.

I have long been a fan of James Thurber. I was happy to realize he grew up here in Columbus (although that's not why I live here). One of my favorite quotes of his:

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?

That's great, CW!

Thurber also said:

If I dialed the wrong number, why did you answer?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Caterwauller:
I have long been a fan of James Thurber. I was happy to realize he grew up here in Columbus (although that's not why I live here). One of my favorite quotes of his:

_Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?_

---

CW, I had a real life experience that mimics Thurber's comment. About forty years ago someone said to me, "Do your own thing, man!" I replied, "Why?" He responded, "Because everybody's doing it!"

Woody Guthrie

quote:

"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

"Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow."

So keep singing and don't try to milk a dead cow.

Tinman

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
Elizabeth Taylor

This book is dedicated to my brilliant and beautiful wife, without whom I would be nothing. She always comforts and consoles, never complains or interferes, asks nothing, and endures all.

She also writes my dedications.

Albert Malvino

George Bernard Shaw
I often quote myself, it adds spice to my conversation.

quote:

Originally posted by wildflowerchild:
Somethings just aren't fair.

There are 270,000 people in the world making love right now, and you are on the computer."

Now that has REALLY made me depressed as I sit here!

My favourite quote is also Oscar Wilde. As a young man he attended a dance in Ireland where he saw a very attractive woman who enjoyed considerable status in society. She was older than Wilde and an extreme snob so when he asked her for a dance she looked down her nose at him and said 'Do you really think I would dance with a child?', to which Wilde was able to immediately respond with, 'My apologies Madam, if I had known you were in that condition I never would have asked in the first place' and walked away.

Oh for the ability to respond like that in every situation.

"If you're not fired with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm"
-Vince Lombardi

Is there a name for this? Saying the same thing with different emphasis to emphasize a point?

quote:

Is there a name for this? Saying the same thing with different emphasis to emphasize a point?

The name I use for that is "witty."

quote:

Originally posted by Seanahan:
"If you're not fired with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm"
-Vince Lombardi

Is there a name for this? Saying the same thing with different emphasis to emphasize a point?

Syllepsis seems to fit:

quote:

When a single word that governs or modifies two or more others must be understood differently with respect to each of those words. A combination of grammatical parallelism and semantic incongruity, often with a witty or comical effect. Not to be confused with zeugma.

Examples
In the following example, "rend" governs both objects, but the first rending is figurative; the second, literal:
Rend your heart, and not your garments. Joel 2:13

You held your breath and the door for me
—Alanis Morissette

"Fix the problem, not the blame." —Dave Weinbaum
The verb "fix" governs both "problem" and "blame." In its first instance, "fix" means "solve," but this verb shifts its meaning when applied to its second object, where the understood "fix" = "assign."

That's from an online reference Shufitz posted some time ago, Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric.

We discussed this word in August 2002. Hic et ubique posted a link to the song, Have Some Madeira, M'Dear, which uses syllepsis. Hic's link doesn't work anymore, but I found one that does. I'm going to post the entire song here, to make sure that it doesn't get lost. I don't know what year they wrote it, but I assume it was probably in the 1950s or early 1960s, since the Limelighters came out with a version. If anybody tracks down the year, please let me know.

Have Some Madeira, M'Dear
(Flanders and Swann)

She was young, she was pure, she was new, she was nice
She was fair, she was sweet seventeen.
He was old, he was vile, and no stranger to vice
He was base, he was bad, he was mean.
He had slyly inveigled her up to his flat
To view his collection of stamps,
And he said as he hastened to put out the cat,
The wine, his cigar and the lamps:

Have some madeira, m'dear. You really have nothing to fear.
I'm not trying to tempt you, that wouldn't be right,
You shouldn't drink spirits at this time of night.
Have some madeira, m'dear. It's really much nicer than beer.
I don't care for sherry, one cannot drink stout,
And port is a wine I can well do without...
It's simply a case of chacun a son gout
Have some madeira, m'dear.

Unaware of the wiles of the snake-in-the-grass
And the fate of the maiden who topes,
She lowered her standards by raising her glass,
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.
She sipped it, she drank it, she drained it, she did!
He promptly refilled it again,
And he said as he secretly carved one more notch
On the butt of his gold-headed cane:

Have some madeira, m'dear,
I've got a small cask of it here.
And once it's been opened, you know it won't keep.
Do finish it up. It will help you to sleep.
Have some madeira, m'dear.
It's really an excellent year.
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes
The evil gin does would be hard to assess..
Besides it's inclined to affect me prowess,
Have some madeira, m'dear.

Then there flashed through her mind what her mother had said
With her antepenultimate breath,
"Oh my child, should you look on the wine that is red
Be prepared for a fate worse than death!"
She let go her glass with a shrill little cry,
Crash! Tinkle! it fell to the floor;
When he asked, "What in Heaven?" She made no reply,
Up her mind, and a dash for the door.

Have some madeira, m'dear.
Rang out down the hall loud and clear
With a tremulous cry that was filled with despair,
As she fought to take breath in the cool midnight air,
Have some madeira, m'dear.
The words seemed to ring in her ear.
Until the next morning, she woke in her bed
With a smile on her lips and an ache in her head...
And a beard in her lug 'ole that tickled and said:
Have some madeira, m'dear!

Tinman

quote:

Originally posted by tinman: the song, Have Some Madeira, M'Dear ... I don't know what year they wrote it ... If anybody tracks down the year, please let me know.

It's from their show At the Drop of a Hat, and than show opened its London run on New Year's Eve, 1956. "It was reported that Princess Margaret attended a performance, and returned the following week with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh."

I have Lehrer's recording of it, and have enjoyed it a great deal after your recommendations!

IN honor of my own birthday, I offer this quote:

Old age ain't no place for sissies.
Bette Davis

Thanks, Hic. I hope I posted the song as originally written. When I searched for it I mostly came up with the Limelighters version, which changed some of the wording and left out most of the syllepses.

Tinman

One of my favorites...

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
Groucho Marx

I've always liked "Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you can never blame too deeply", mostly because it irks the fair sex, although one can see why it was said, considering Zelda's, let's just say, indiscretions.

quote:

Originally posted by Seanahan: "it irks the fair sex".

"MAIDEN: n. A young person of the unfair sex ... " -- Ambrose Bierce

PS to tinman: No problem. Considering how much research you do for us, it was only fair for me to return the favor in small measure.

PS to TrossL: Lovely picture, but it's too small to show you off as you deserve. Have you made any enlargement, perhaps?

That's a good definition. It took my brain a minute to wrap about the definition. On that note, does anyone know a good source for all the humorous definitions in various dictionaries? The definition for lexicographer as a "harmless drudge" among my favorite examples. I can't seem to convince Google to give me anything good.

On not being able to end sentences with prepositions, "It is something up with which we should not put".

Anon

quote:

"Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them."

Tinman

quote:

Originally posted by Seanahan:
On not being able to end sentences with prepositions, "It is something up with which we should not put".

That sounds very Yoda-like... as in this quote by the jedi Master himself:

Death, a natural part of life is. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealously. The shadow of greed, that is.

Close, but it was actually said by Churchill. That isn't even my favorite Churchill quote.

"Mr. Churchill, you're drunk."
"Yes my dear lady, and you're ugly. But tomorrow when I wake up, I won't be drunk, and you'll still be ugly."

I love that one, too, Sean. I adore Churchill quotes (that's probably why I like the British influence here! )

Looking for Churchill quotes, I found these on language. I liked Lily Tomlin's, "Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain."

"No one who can read is ever
successful at cleaning out the attic."

The guy who sent me this quote didn't know the source of it. He said he ran across it while he was cleaning out some old papers one day. Does anybody know the source of the quote?

Tinman

quote:

"No one who can read is ever
successful at cleaning out the attic."

Funny, Tinman, I put it in Google and got one cite...this one!

Tinman, I can't find it. I went to a couple of quotation sites, putting in "attic," but nothing turned up. There seem to be only a few quotes using the word 'attic.' It is a great quote! Does anyone else know the origin of it?

Shu and I saw the Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre exhibit (wonderful; see it if you've the chance!) at the Art Institute, and I saw this great quote:

Gaudeamus igitur iuvenes - "Be joyful while we are young" It was perfect for the exhibit!

Reviving a thread...

I saw this quote in Borders and thought it hilarious:

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
~ Groucho Marx

How did Groucho know?

quote:

Originally posted by tinman:
"No one who can read is ever
successful at cleaning out the attic."

The guy who sent me this quote didn't know the source of it. He said he ran across it while he was cleaning out some old papers one day. Does anybody know the source of the quote?

Tinman

I haven't found out the source of the quote, but I did find out that the person who sent it to me is a woman, not a "guy."

Tinman

How'd you find out?

Reviving a thread

I was reminded of this quote recently, from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice; it definitely shows the importance of music:

quote:

The Man who has not Music in his Soul,
Or is not touch'd with Concord of sweet Sounds,
Is fit for Treason, Stratagems, and Spoils,
The Motions of his Mind are dull as Night,
And his Affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.

That is strong!

quote:

The Man who has not Music in his Soul,
Or is not touch'd with Concord of sweet Sounds,
Is fit for Treason, Stratagems, and Spoils,
The Motions of his Mind are dull as Night,
And his Affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.

Snoop Dog?

A quote that is going around the world:

"Seriously, it's Jorge Bergoglio, I'm calling you from Rome," said Pope Francis when he tried to cancel his Argentine newspaper. Of course the vendor thought it was a joke.