Wednesday, January 9, 2002
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Wednesday, January 9, 2002 |
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Alas, poor Yorick indeed By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
To see how many brain cells were wiped out in New Year celebrations, here's a quiz sent to me by Jan and Dick Allis of Peachtree City. It seems that we don't always get it right when we quote familiar passages, and well-known lexiphile Richard Lederer wants to set us straight. He listed quite a few in the May 1996 Mensa Bulletin. Lederer believes that the more a familiar phrase or sentence is quoted, the greater the chances of a change or error, hence the likelier it will be quoted wrong. Makes me think of the game of gossip we played as kids. Seldom could a whispered saying make it from one end of a line to another, and remain intact. Lederer teases with the first four items, which were offered by an early 20th century wit and columnist named Franklin Adams. Call these an appetizer, with solutions following. From "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Tyler Coleridge, complete the statement "Water, water everywhere " What words follow "Alas, poor Yorick "? What grow from little acorns? Finish the line "'Twas the night before Christmas." How did you do? Very few know that the first continues "Nor any drop to drink," not "And not a drop to drink." The second, spoken by Shakespeare's Hamlet, is "I knew him, Horatio," not "I knew him well." The third is "tall oaks," not "great oaks." Lederer attributes that one to a David Everett, but my Bartlett's Familiar Quotations calls it a Latin saying. And Clement Clarke Moore's Christmas Poem continues "While all through the house," not "And all " You probably missed most of them; most people do. So let's go to Lederer's main course. The correct answers are elsewhere in this edition of The Citizen.
" is the root of all evil." (1st Timothy 6:10) "A penny for your " (John Heywood) "Till death part." (Wedding vow) " will have his day." (William Shakespeare) "play it " (Humphrey Bogart) "I have nothing to offer but blood. " (Winston Churchill) "Give him an inch, he'll take." (John Ray) "Variety's the of life" (William Cowper) " the skin of my teeth" (Job) "Music hath charms to soothe " (William Congreve) "To the lily" (Shakespeare) "Under spreading chestnut tree/The village smithy stands" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) "Pride goeth before " (Proverbs) "One good turn another." (John Heywood) "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no " (Isaac Watts) "Imitation is the sincerest " (Walter Colton) "All that is not gold." (Shakespeare) " is the gate and narrow is the way." (Matthew) "Beggars choosers." (Heywood) "Better halfe a loafe than " (Heywood) "Went in ear and out " (Heywood) "All I know is what I in the papers." (Will Rogers) "Sticks and stones may break my bones,/But can never " (old English rhyme) " not to reason why,/ but to do and die." (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) "Birds of a feather together." (Robert Burton) "I only regret that I have but one life to for my country." (Nathan Hale) "And one man in his plays many parts." (Shakespeare) "To the born." (Shakespeare) " better part of " (Shakespeare) "Winning isn't everything. " (Vince Lombardi) Answers are ***.
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