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

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.

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…

About God’s mysterious way(s)…

THE OFTEN MISQUOTED ORIGIN: “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.”        William Cowper (1731-1800)        British poet and hymn writer        From his Hymn No. 35, “Light Shining Out of Darkness”         These are the opening lyrics of the hymn, which was first published in Olney Hymns (1779). The first two lines are usually misquoted as “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” and often wrongly assumed to be a Bible quote.

BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS COUNTERQUOTE: “God does not work in mysterious ways — it’s blindingly obvious when he’s dropping you a big hint.”        A comment I read in 2010 on a now-vanished blog         At the time, it stuck me as something that could be applied to the Gulf Oil Spill, which had recently occurred (and which still may be doing mysterious things to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico).

COLBERT’S VERSION:  “God works in mysterious ways. But at least he works. He’s never on welfare in mysterious ways.”        Stephen Colbert        One of his straight-faced faux Conservative quips on the June 23, 2010 episode of The Colbert Report

ATHEIST VARIATION #1: “There are no atheists in a foxhole, and there are, apparently, no atheists in the Ku Klux Klan. God sometimes moves in mysterious ways, His lip service to exact.”          Attributed to Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983)        American author and journalist

ATHEIST VARIATION #2: “I have yet to see a good answer for why God is all-powerful and all-knowing and all-good – or even anything close to all-powerful and all-knowing and all-good – and still isn’t perceived by everybody. Does anybody have one? (And if you say ‘Mysterious ways,’ I’m going to scream.)”          Greta Christina         Atheist blogger and author        In a post she wrote for AlterNet

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

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

Related reading…

“A House Divided” – the Political Pundits Versions

LINCOLN’S FAMOUS QUOTE: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”        Abraham Lincoln         Speech at the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858

OBERMANN’S VERSION: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half smart and half stupid.”        Keith Olbermann        Liberal media pundit        Comment on Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelling "You lie! at President Obama        On MSNBC's Countdown TV show, Sept. 10, 2009

BECK’S ODD VERSION: “Over 50% of the African-American community now believes that the cure of AIDS exists but the Government won’t release it because AIDS kills poor people. That’s frightening. A house divided against itself cannot fail.”        Glenn Beck        Conservative media pundit        On his radio show, March 24, 2008

COLBERT QUIP: “A house divided against itself cannot stand, but it's worth squat in this market anyway.”        Stephen Colbert        The supposedly faux political pundit        On his Colbert Report TV show, Jan. 13, 2009

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    

Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.