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unearths some literary gems.
From The Way of the World, by William Congreve:
***WIT. My dear, I ask ten thousand pardons. Gad, I have forgot what I was going to say to you.MIRA. I thank you heartily, heartily.***[Is this the Restoration equivalent of having oneself paged at the Beverly Hills Hotel swimming pool?]As soon as your back was turned—whip he was gone; then trip to his lodging, clap on a hood and scarf and a mask, slap into a hackney-coach, and drive hither to the door again in a trice; where he would send in for himself; that I mean, call for himself, wait for himself, nay, and what’s more, not finding himself, sometimes leave a letter for himself.***
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unearths some literary gems.
From "'Lars Porsena,' or the Future of Swearing and Improper Language," by Robert Graves
***No form of humour is more boring than nonalcoholic substitutes for the true wine of swearing as "Great jumping beans!", "Ye little fishes!", "Snakes and ladders!" and "Jam and butter your whiskers, you irregular old Pentagon!"[Naturally, I disagree strongly with the assertion, and the proof is how much I enjoy the examples. (I don't know if Graves spotted any of these in the wild as oaths, or whether, as I hope, he simply imagines them as such, as I would have to assume is at least the case for the last one.)]***[Graves quoting a Sheridan play]"The ancients would never stick to an oath or two, but would say, by Jove! or by Bacchus! or by Mars! or by Venus! or by Pallas! according to the sentiment...this we call the oath referential or sentimental swearing."[Graves himself also makes mention of what he calls "negative swearing," which seems to encompass ironic benedictions as well as oaths so understated that they manage to imply loud, over-the-top cussing.]***[A naughty take on the Cholmondeley phenomenon]In Bigland’s Life and Times of Horatio Bottomley, a famous practical joker, he is said to have protested against this excess of delicacy by introducing himself to a member of the Siddybotaam [i.e., Sidebottom] family as "H, Bumley, Esq."[I think Graves made all of this up, btw.]***
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unearths some literary gems.
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unearths some literary gems.
Throwing things into the Grand Canyon:
Didst thou not promise us wagons that could safely be thrown into the Grand Canyon without even starting a nut…? —The Automobile, June 15, 1921
What to do with the used safety razor blades? This is a joke of long standing and the best answer up to date is that they be thrown into the Grand Canyon. —The Gillette Blade, Silver Jubilee Issue, September 1926
If all the jokes that ever were written about the Grand Canyon were thrown into the Grand Canyon, there would not be the slightest decrease in the flow of Grand Canyon jokes. —Judge, 1930
DEVEREAUX: Destroy all modern artifacts…throw the cyclotrons and piles and isotopes and all the paraphernalia of the last century into the Grand Canyon, cover it with dust and proclaim, “It’s done!... Man is now saved!” —Dore Schary, The Highest Tree, 1960
We will show you what real conservation is. It isn’t the locking up of all our natural resources and then throwing the key into the Grand Canyon (empty or full). —American Paper Industry, v. 48, 1966
The gulf between the description of drug action… at the functional and behavioural level remains, for the most part, very wide. Attempts to bridge it seem, at times, like throwing candy floss into the Grand Canyon. —Humphrey Rang et al., quoted in The Joyless Economy, by Tibor Scitovsky, 1976
Vince Evans can too throw a football into the Grand Canyon while standing next to it, as previously doubted here. —John Underwood, “USC Is Right on Pitch,” Sports Illustrated, Nov. 29 1976
“Toil” means… all the marbles that we throw into the Grand Canyon of meaninglessness in a necessary but doomed attempt to fill it up…. —Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life, 1989
Albert Fine once threw a collection of my letters into the Grand Canyon, which I thought was a marvelous Fluxist gesture. —The Print Collector’s Newsletter, 1992(?)
[Artist Ross] Birrell’s ongoing “Envoy” series features books thrown into the sea or void, including The Interpretation of Dreams thrown into the Gulf of Finland (2001); Brave New World thrown into the River Vurjan on the Norwegian-Russian border (2001); and Heidegger’s Being and Time thrown into the Grand Canyon (2012). —Book Destruction from the Medieval to the Contemporary, ed. Adam Smyth and Gill Partington, 2014
“Fine,” Rosemary concedes. “We can throw out the itinerary for a few days….” “Throw that thing into the Grand Canyon and let’s roll!” Rosemary takes a deep breath and holds the binder out in front of her. She turns toward the edge of the canyon. “Whoa there!” Logan holds up both hands. “Throwing it into the Grand Canyon is a metaphor.” —Alison Cochrun, Here We Go Again, 2024
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unearths some literary gems.
From Showcase, ed. Roy Newquist, ill. Irma Selz (1966):
***If there is such a thing as reincarnation, and we have a choice of identities, how many Sammy Davis, Jr.'s will there be? [Newquist]***"I'd heard that Queen Victoria had a German accent....That was why I wanted to see the Marchioness....I asked her if her grandmother, her majesty Queen Victoria, had any discernible German accent, and she said, 'Ach, no, she hadt no more accent than you or me.'" [Helen Hayes]***NEWQUIST: Are you sensitive about the reviews of your movies?ERNEST LEHMAN: Oh, Lord. You are talking to the seismograph of screenwriters. I can record a bad review in Bombay.[Also, Lehman describes one of his own early writing efforts as a "road-company Jerome Weidman," i.e., a second-rate imitation of Weidman.]***"[A show that failed] sort of spurred me on to bigger and better things. Like never working again." [Phyllis Newman]***"Bob Hope can make you laugh at something that isn't funny, and he goes on to his next joke so quickly you're not aware that you laughed at nothing. He's rhythmed you into it." [Robert Preston]***
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