January 19, 2016

“A ticket to ride” – from the Beatles to Celine Dion to primary politics and LOLdogs…

Ticket_to_Ride single-8x6
THE FAMOUS BEATLES LYRIC:

“She’s got a ticket to ride, but she don’t care.”
       The Beatles
       The well-known line from the chorus of their 1965 song “Ticket to Ride,” featured in their movie HELP!
       Like many Beatles songs, “Ticket to Ride” is officially credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney but was primarily written by one of them (in this case Lennon). The lyrics tell the story of a guy who’s “gonna be sad” because his girlfriend is dumping him and “going away.” It’s a bit unclear what her “ticket to ride” refers to. It could be a ticket on some form of public transportation. It could allude to her relationship with the guy, a “ride” she no longer cares about.
      
According to many websites and books about the Beatles, Lennon once suggested in his typically cheeky (and often tongue-in-cheek) fashion that he coined the phrase when the band was playing in Hamburg, Germany in the early 1960s. The local prostitutes there had to get regular medical checkups. Those who passed were given a card confirming they had no venereal disease — which Lennon said he dubbed “a ticket to ride.” Another theory in Beatles lore is that “ticket to ride” was a pun about the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. One of McCartney’s cousins ran a bar there that he and Lennon visited together, after buying a ticket on the British Railways train to Ryde.


991967  CELINE'S INSPIRING VARIATION:

“It’s important to open your eyes in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and ask two questions: ‘Are you dead, or do you have a ticket to ride?’...If you’re alive, have a good day. Because today is the most important day of your life.”
       Celine Dion
       Canadian musical star
       Comment to the press in September 2015 about the how she tried to deal with the fact that her husband and manager René Angélil was gravely ill with throat cancer. Celine and René used their tickets to ride together every day until he passed away on January 14, 2016.


A PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY TICKET TO NOWHERE:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I think we’re in the hunt!...I’d say third place is a ticket to ride, ladies and gentleman! Hello, South Carolina!”
       Jon Huntsman 
       The former Governor of Utah who ran as a Republican presidential candidate in 2012 
       Comment in
a speech on the night of January 10, 2012, after taking third place in New Hampshire’s Republican primary
       Huntsman’s use of “ticket to ride” was his attempt at a clever sound bite suggesting that he had the momentum needed to continue his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in the upcoming South Carolina primary election. Several days later, when polls showed Mitt Romney would likely beat him by a wide margin, Huntsman dropped out of the Republican primary race before the Palmetto State’s primary was held.


STEPHEN COLBERT’S QUIP ABOUT HUNTSMAN:

“Yes, he’s got a ticket to ride and we don’t care.”
       Stephen Colbert 
       Former host the Comedy Channel’s Colbert Report TV show 
       Spoofing Huntsman’s reference to the Beatles’ song
on the January 11, 2012 episode of the Colbert Report


A PUZZLER FOR DEEP THINKERS:

“If she’s got a ticket to ride, why don’t she care? Why did she buy it in the first place?” 
       Blogger
“Quincy the Wolf” 
       In
one of the “Deep Thoughts” posted in his online journal


A NOT TOO DEEP (BUT VERY CUTE) LOLDOG:

“SHE’S GOT A CHICKEN TO RIDE AND SHE DON’T CARE” 
       Caption on an ihasahotdog.com photo

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Comments? Corrections? Post them on the Famous Quotations Facebook page.

Related reading, listening and swag…

January 10, 2016

An honest politician is…

Simon Cameron honest politician quote WM

THE FAMOUS DISHONESTLY-ATTRIBUTED QUOTE:

“An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.” 
      
Simon Cameron (1799-1889) 
       American businessman and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under President “Honest Abe” Lincoln 
       A legendary quip that has long been linked to Cameron, though
it appears that he never said it. In his excellent book, The Quote Verifier, quotation maven Ralph Keyes notes that there is no record of Cameron making any such remark. Keyes speculates that it was probably falsely attributed to Cameron by one of his many political enemies and over time was assumed to be an actual quote.

Mike Keefe cartoon. George Carlin Oxymorons

THE GEORGE CARLIN CONNECTION:

“An honest politician is as much an oxymoron as jumbo shrimp.”
       Harrison Finzel
       Arizona journalist
       In an article in The State Press newspaper, October 20, 2015
       George Carlin's Oxymorons cartoon by Mike Keefe

Joey Adams-8x6

THE JOEY ADAMS VARIATION:

“An honest politician is one who’s never been caught.”
      
Joey Adams (1911-1999)
       American comedian   
       From his column “Strictly for Laughs”
       The New York Post, January 5, 1999

Taylor Caldwell-8x6

CALDWELL’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“An honest politician is either a hypocrite — or he is doomed.”
      
Taylor Caldwell (Janet Miriam Taylor Caldwell; 1900-1985)
       British-born American novelist
       From her novel Captains and the Kings (1972)

H.L. Mencken-8x6

MENCKEN’S OBSERVATION:

“An honest politician is regarded as a sort of marvel, like a calf with five legs, and the news that one has appeared is commonly received with derision.”
     
H.L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken; 1880-1956)
       American journalist, editor, language maven and curmudgeon
       In his book The American Language (1919)

Richard Reeves-8x6[1]

REEVE’S OBSERVATION:

“In the good old days, an honest politician was one who lied only when he had to. But now lies are becoming the accepted language of government at the highest levels, the theory being that sooner or later the people of the country will become so confused and disillusioned that they will just mind their own business, and leave governing to well-placed liars.”
      
Richard Reeves (b. 1936)
       American newspaper columnist
       “Bush & Co. Are Turning Washington into a Liar's Club”
       From his syndicated column, December 17, 1989

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Comments? Corrections? Post them on the Famous Quotations Facebook group.

Rleated reading: some recently-published political quote books...

 

Copyrights, Disclaimers & Privacy Policy


Creative Commons License
Copyright © Subtropic Productions LLC

The Quote/Counterquote blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Any duplicative or remixed use of the original text written for this blog and any exact duplications the specific sets of quotations collected for the posts shown here must include an attribution to QuoteCounterquote.com and, if online, a link to http://www.quotecounterquote.com/

To the best of our knowledge, the non-original content posted here is used in a way that is allowed under the fair use doctrine. If you own the copyright to something we've posted and think we may have violated fair use standards, please let me know.

Subtropic Productions LLC and QuoteCounterquote.com are committed to protecting your privacy. We will not sell your email address, etc. For more details, read this blog's full Privacy Policy.