August 28, 2011

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”


THE FAMOUS PATRIOTIC QUOTE:

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
      
Nathan Hale (1755-1776)
       American schoolteacher, spy and Revolutionary War hero
       According to legend, Hale uttered this brave quote on September 22, 1776, just before he was hung by the British for being an American spy. According to modern historians, he probably didn’t say it. If he did, he was probably paraphrasing an earlier quote from Joseph Addison’s play Cato (1713), which was popular in the 1770s and almost certainly known to Hale. In Act IV, Scene 4 of the play, Cato says: “What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!”

THE COLBERT COUNTERQUOTE:


“I regret that I have but one life to give. I want more lives!”
      
Stephen Colbert
       American political satirist
       In
his intro to the June 5, 2008 episode of The Colbert Report

THE ABBIE HOFFMAN FLAG SHIRT VARIATION:


“I only regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country.”
      
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989)
       American political activist and leader of the Yippies
      
His response in October 1968 after being found guilty of the “crime” of wearing an American flag shirt.

THE FOREIGN SERVICE VARIATION:


“I only regret that I have but one liver to give for my country.”
      
Fred Chapin (1929-1969)
       American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Guatemala and Ethiopia
       Chapin, famous for his ability to drink a bottle of Scotch and still give a lucid interview, is generally credited with coining this quip. It’s
said to be well-known in Foreign Service circles.

THE CHEEZY LOLCAT VARIATION:

“I only regret that I have but nine lives to give for my Cheez-site.” 
       Posted by
CorvusCorax 
       Another one of those cute LOLcat photo/quotes

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August 10, 2011

“Let them eat cake” – the misinterpreted origin, recent political uses and some politically incorrect variations...


THE ALLEGED (BUT DOUBTFUL) ORIGIN:


“Let them eat cake.” (“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”)

       Attributed to
Marie Antoinette (1755-1793)
       Queen of France from 1774 to 1792; beheaded in 1793 in the wake of the French Revolution 
       This classic expression of disdain for the common people has traditionally been attributed to Marie Antoinette. She supposedly said it when she was told that most French people were do poor they were unable to buy bread to eat.
Many scholars now doubt that she actually said it. Moreover, if she did say the line as traditionally given in French — “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” — it has long been mistranslated and possibly misunderstood. In English, those words actually mean “Let them eat brioche,” referring to a bakery product that is not what we usually think of as a “cake.” Brioche is a light, fluffy pastry with a flaky crust. As explained by the excellent Phrase Finder site, French law in Marie Antoinette’s time required bakers to sell fancier products like brioche at the same price as a common loaf of bread, to prevent them from using too much of the limited flour supplies to make products that would typically be more profitable to the bakery but unaffordable to poor French families. Thus, “Let them eat brioche” could have been an expression of compassion rather than disdain, suggesting that poor people should have access to a product they would have been unable to afford without price controls.


THE POLITICAL PEAS VERSION:

“While chastising the Republicans for not agreeing to a debt ceiling deal that would include his suggestions to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits, President Obama said Congressional members needed to do their work, reach a deal and just ‘eat their peas.’...While no one knows for sure if Marie Antoinette ever really said, ‘Let them eat cake,’ we do know the elite in France all those years ago in the 1700s were clueless to the cries of people who couldn't afford bread much less the cake they had been admonished to eat. It appears that in 2011 in the United States of America, we can now replace that admonition with our own: ‘Let them eat their peas.’”
      
Donna Smith
       Healthcare reform activist and Founder of American Patients United
       In an
opinion piece posted on OpedNews.com on July 18, 2011


THE POLITICAL CORN (FLAKE) VERSION:

“Now, once again the reincarnated Marie Antoinette Michele Bachmann is screaming from the floor of the House of Representatives and from Iowa televisions ‘I will not raise the debt ceiling under any circumstances. Let them eat corn!’ If the GOP once again drive the country and the world into a financial ditch can martial law and a fascist dictatorship in the United States be far behind?”
      
Karen Fish
       Freelance blogger
       In
an op-ed posted on TheSpoof.com site on July 23, 2011


POLITICALLY INCORRECT VARIATION #1:

“Let Them Eat Pussy”
       Title of
the 1998 debut album by the “psychobilly” rock band Nashville Pussy


POLITICALLY INCORRECT VARIATION #2:

“I saw this video once, yeah, they was all dressed up like Marie Antoinette. Well, they wore the wigs. Let Them Eat Cock it was called.”
       Actor
Fraser Ayres
       As the character Clint,
in an episode of the BBC comedy TV series The Smoking Room (2004–2005)

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