September 28, 2009

Guns don’t kill people. Swords don’t either. But they help.

QUOTE:
“Guns don't kill people – people kill people.”
       National Rifle Association (NRA), founded 1871
       Slogan used since the 1970s

---> See more about the gun control debate

 

COUNTERQUOTE:
“The National Rifle Association says that guns don’t kill people, people do. But I think the guns help.”

       Eddie Izzard (b. 1962)
       British actor and comedian
       In his HBO special Dress To Kill (1999)

---> See more stuff by and with Eddie Izzard

 

ROMANQUOTE:
“A sword never kills anybody; it’s a tool in the killer’s hand.”
       Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC – AD 65)
       Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist
       Letters to Lucilius (ca. 63-65)

---> See more stuff about swords

September 26, 2009

The less traveled fork: Robert Frost vs. Yogi vs. “Duh”

QUOTE:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by.”
       Robert Frost (1875-1963)
       American poet
       In his poem "The Road Not Taken" (1916)

---> See more stuff by about about Frost

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
       Yogi Berra (b. 1925)
       American baseball player, manager and aphorist
       Giving driving directions to Joe Garagiola 
       Noted in his book Yogi: It Ain't Over (1989)

---> See more stuff by about about Yogi

 

DUHQUOTE:

“In the words of George Bernard Shaw...‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.’” 
       Indiana politician Sen. Evan Bayh (b. 1955)
       Misattributing Frost's famous line in a speech calling for educational excellence at a meeting of the Education Commission of the States. Newsweek, August 24, 1992

---> See more about misquotations

September 25, 2009

Hitler vs. Ad man vs. Stan Freberg

QUOTE:

“Today Germany...tomorrow the world.”
       Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
       Megalomaniac Nazi dictator
       Mein Kampf (1925)

---> See more about megalomaniac dictators 

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“The armpit had its moment of glory, and the toes...What's left?...The vagina. Today the vagina, tomorrow the world.”
       Jerry Della Femina (b. 1936) 
       American advertising executive 
       On feminine-hygiene deodorants, Time, June 22, 1970

---> See more stuff about admen

 

PRUNEQUOTE:

“Today the pits, tomorrow the wrinkles.”
       Stan Freberg (b. 1926)
       American comic genius
       Ad for Sunsweet prunes (late 1960s)

---> See more Stan Freberg stuff

September 21, 2009

Where Waterloo was won and Vietnam was lost

QUOTE:

“The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.”
       Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852)
       Irish-born British soldier and statesman
       Attributed by Sir William Fraser, Words on Wellington (1889) 

---> See more stuff about Waterloo

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America — not on the battlefields of Vietnam.”
       Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)
       Canadian media and communications theorist
       Quoted in the Montreal Gazette, May 16, 1975

---> See more stuff by and about McLuhan

September 18, 2009

The thrill of victory – the agony of soccer fans

QUOTE:

“Spanning the globe, to bring you the constant variety of sport – the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”
       Famed intro to ABC's Wide World of Sports
       Voiced by host Jim McKay (1921-2008)
       Written by producer Roone Arledge and first used in 1961

---> See more Wide World of Sports stuff

  

COUNTERQUOTE:

“We’ll bring you the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat – and, because we've got soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a zero-zero tie.”
       Actor Josh Charles, playing sportscaster Dan Rydell
       In the American comedy TV series Sports Night, 1998

---> See more Sports Night stuff

September 17, 2009

Be it ever so humble – or not

QUOTE:

“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
       John Howard Payne (1791-1852)
       U.S.-born expatriate actor and songwriter
       From his song “Home, Sweet, Home” (1823)

---> See more “Home, Sweet, Home” stuff

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“Though he might be more humble, there is no police like Holmes.”
       E.W. Hornung (1866-1921)
       British novelist known for his gentleman-burglar Raffles series
       Hornung was brother-in-law of the creator of Sherlock Holmes, 
        Arthur Conan Doyle, who noted the pun in his autobiography

---> See more stuff by and about Hornung

September 16, 2009

Tell me [X] and I’ll tell you [Y]

QUOTE:

“Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are.”
       Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)
       French lawyer and gastronome
       The Physiology of Taste (1825)

---> See more stuff about food connoisseurs

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are.”
       John Ruskin (1819-1900)
       English art critic and author
       The Crown of Wild Olive (1866), Lecture 2 

---> See more stuff by and about Ruskin

Go ahead, make my day

QUOTE:

“Go ahead, make my day.”
       Clint Eastwood (b. 1930)
       As the character "Dirty Harry" Callahan
       In the movie Sudden Impact (1983)

---> See more stuff by and about Clint

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“Go ahead, make me gay.”
       The character Flirty Harry (actor Vince Offer)
       In The Underground Comedy Movie (1999)

---> See more about bad movies

September 14, 2009

The best minds of my generation

QUOTE:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection.”
 
       Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
       American poet and novelist
       The classic Beat poem “Howl” (1956) 

---> See more stuff by and about Ginsberg

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by stress frazzled overtired burnt-out,
jogging through suburban streets at dawn as suggested by the late James Fixx,
career-minded yupsters burning for an Amstel Light watching Stupid Pet Tricks.”
  
       Christopher Buckley & Paul Slansky 
       American journalists and book authors
       “Yowl,” an updated yuppie version of "Howl"
       Published in New Republic magazine, 1986

---> See more stuff by Buckley

---> See more stuff by Slansky

September 13, 2009

Change the insurance companies can believe in

QUOTE:

“Change we can believe in.”
       Barack Obama (b. 1961)
       44th President of the United States
       Campaign slogan used in his presidential campaign, 2008

---> See more stuff about Obama

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“If the oldest and sickest are on Medicare, and the poorest are on Medicaid, and the young and the healthy are required to purchase private insurance without the option of a competing government-run plan — well, that’s reform the insurance companies can believe in.”
       Bob Herbert (b. 1945)
       American op-ed columnist
       Op-ed in the New York Times, August 17, 2009

---> See more on the health care reform debate

September 12, 2009

Educate yourself about the cult of personality

QUOTE:

“Comrades! We must abolish the cult of personality.”
       Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)
       Communist Party leader of the USSR  
       Denouncing Communist party members for airing views that
          urged Stalinist policies, Feb. 25, 1956

---> See more stuff about the USSR

 

COUNTERQUOTE:

“It gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality.” 
       State Senator Steve Russell (Rep., Oklahoma Dist. 45)  
       Apparent student of Khrushchev’s rhetoric
       Statement to the press, Sept. 4, 2009
       Denouncing C-Span for airing TV address by Pres. Obama
          urging students to stay in school, Sept. 4, 2009

---> See more stuff about Oklahoma

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