August 22, 2017

“The squeaky wheel get the grease”

Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease meme

THE OLD (MIS)ATTRIBUTED SAYING:

“I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace,
But the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.”
       Attributed to
Josh Billings (1818-1885)
       American humorist    
       The 1937 edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations attributed these lines to Billings, the pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw, and claimed they came from a poem he wrote around 1870 called “The Kicker.” (In the 1800s, kicker was a slang term for someone who complained a lot.) The attribution to Billings was accepted and repeated for many years. So was the suggestion that the poem was the origin of the saying “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” an idiom that means the most noticeable problems or loudest complainers are most likely to get attention and be fixed or placated. (Sometimes given as “The squeaky wheel gets the oil.”)              
      Modern quote mavens, like Fred Shapiro, editor of
The Yale Book of Quotations, have found no proof that Billings wrote any such poem. It does not appear in any of his published works.
       As noted in a post by Garson O’Toole
on his Quote Investigator site, the earliest documented appearance of the squeaky wheel idiom is in a collection of stories by vaudeville performer and author Cal Stewart published in 1903, titled Uncle Josh Weathersby’s “Punkin Centre” Stories. In that book, Stewart attributes the following epigram to his character Josh Weathersby: 
              “I don’t believe in kickin’,
              It aint apt to bring one peace;
              But the wheel what squeaks the loudest
              Is the one what gets the grease.”

       I think it’s likely that the linguistic concept of squeaky wheels getting greased predates Stewart and Billings. What is certain is that uses and variations of it continue to this day.

peter-diamandis

PETER’S RULE:

“The squeaky wheel gets replaced.”
       Peter H. Diamandis             
       Greek American engineer, physician, and entrepreneur
       In his book
How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World (2015)
       This is one of the principles Diamandis calls
“Peter’s Laws: The Creed for the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive” in the book.

Oteo Shamaya pic           

OTEP’S OBSERVATION:

“You know just because the majority thinks something is right, doesn’t make it right. So, it is up to us, the people that see the wrong, that see the injustice, that stay educated, stay informed, stay involved. And there’s an old phrase ‘the squeaky wheel gets the oil.’ Right now, our wheels aren’t very squeaky; the other side, they’re the ones making all the racket...We just have to get up, stand up, speak out, and don’t be silent.”
      
Otep Shamaya
       Heavy metal musician and liberal activist
       In an interview posted in 2009 on the now defunct site TheScreamQueen.com

John Tantillo

A FAULTY POLITICAL PREDICTION
:

“Folks, the squeaky wheel of activist conservatism and American populism might be getting the grease (i.e., a lot of media attention) right now, but when election time comes the buzz and passion of a new movement will matter less than appealing to the widest group of voters possible with the most credible candidate possible.”
      
John Tantillo
       American marketing consultant and columnist for Fox News  
       A comment he made about political trends during the 2010 election, in a
post on the Fox News website. Given the results of the 2016 presidential election, Tantillo’s prediction seems faulty in more ways than one.

Deborah Tannen        

THE JAPANESE VARIATION:

“Whereas Americans believe, ‘The squeaky wheel gets the grease’ (so it’s best to speak up), the Japanese say, ‘The nail that sticks out gets hammered back in’ (so it’s best to remain silent if you don’t want to be hit on the head).” 
      
Deborah Tannen  
       American professor of linguistics and author
       In her book
Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work (1994)

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

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

Related reading…

August 10, 2017

"Don’t Worry, Be Happy" (Just Slap Me!)

Meher Baba & Bobby McFerrin, Don't Worry Be Happy WM

THE SAYING MADE FAMOUS BY BABA & BOBBY:

“Don’t worry, be happy.”             
       First popularized by Meher Baba (1894-1969); made even more famous by Bobby McFerrin              
       “Don’t worry, be happy” is a catchphrase used by Indian spiritual master Meher Baba and featured on his posters and “inspiration cards” in the mid-1960s.
       Baba probably coined the saying. But it achieved far wider fame after being borrowed as the title and chorus of the 1988 song written by McFerrin, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” McFerrin’s original recording was a huge hit, becoming the first a cappella song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It has since been covered by many other musicians and bands.
       Most people now know (and either love or hate) the song, which starts with the following lyrics:
              Here's a little song I wrote             
              You might want to sing it note for note
              Don’t worry, be happy
              In every life we have some trouble
              But when you worry you make it double
              Don’t worry, be happy      
              Don’t worry, be happy now

Public Enemy Fight the power live

PUBLIC ENEMY’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“Don’t worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn, if I say it you can slap me right here”

       Public Enemy
       Pioneering American hip hop group formed in 1986             
       This was Public Enemy’s mocking response to Bobby McFerrin’s feel-good hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in the lyrics of their song “Fight the Power.” The original version of the song was on the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing. A second version was featured on Public Enemy's 1990 studio album Fear of a Black Planet.

Putin says don't worry be happy

PUTIN’S PARIS DISAGREEMENT PLATITUDE:

“Don't worry, be happy...This accord has not yet come into effect; it is supposed to come into effect as of 2021…so we still have time. If we are all constructive in what we do, there are things that we can agree on.”
       Vladimir Putin             
       President of Russia             
       This was Putin’s widely-quoted response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw United States from the Paris Climate Change Accord, an agreement to reduce the use of fossil fuels to mitigate the global warming.
       Putin himself had two reasons not to worry. For him, Trump’s decision was a win-win, since it made the U.S. look bad and because Russia is the third biggest oil producing country in the world (slightly behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia).
Don't worry be grumpy book

THE GRUMPY VERSION:

“Don’t Worry, Be Grumpy”
       Ajahn Brahm            
       Australian Buddhist teacher and writer
       The title of a book he published in 2015, subtitled “Inspiring Stories for Making the Most of Each Moment.” I wonder if it sold better than his earlier book “Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties.”

Don't Worry Be Crabby, Crabby Bill's

THE CRABBY VERSION :

“Don’t Worry, Be Crabby”
       The motto of Crabby Bill’s
       A Florida-based chain of seafood restaurants

Don't worry it gets worse book

A WORSE VERSION:

“Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse”
       Alida Nugent
       American writer and actress
       The title of Nugent’s book about what she describes in the subtitle as her “(Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood.”

Don't Worry Be NAPPY

THE NATTY DREADLOCKS VERSION:

“Don’t Worry, Be NAPPY!”
      Jeffery Bradley
      American author and Internet entrepreneur
      The title of his book about “maintaining and living with dreadlocks, a hairstyle that most in American society consider impractical.” (Alas, a hairstyle that for me is impossible, as much as I’d love to have dreads.)     

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

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

Related reading, listening and viewing…

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.