“Go ahead, make my day.”

DIRTY HARRY’S LEGENDARY CATCHPHRASE: “Go ahead, make my day.”        Clint Eastwood        American actor, director and producer        His legendary quote as the tough police officer “Dirty Harry” Callahan, in the film Sudden Impact (1983)         Harry utters these words in an early scene in the movie, during which he thwarts the attempted robbery of a restaurant by four armed thugs. He shoots and kills three of the would-be robbers and wounds another. The wounded thug grabs a waitress and points a gun at her head, thinking it will make Harry back off and let him escape. Harry calmly points his big .44 Magnum pistol at the thug and says: “Go ahead, make my day.” It clearly implies that Harry would enjoy killing him, too, if the thug provided an excuse by continuing to threaten the waitress. After pondering the remark and the steely look on Harry’s face, the thug drops his gun and surrenders.        The huge popularity of Sudden Impact made “Go ahead, make my day” a world famous catchphrase that has been used ever since, usually as a sarcastic taunt. One of the most noted uses was by President Ronald Reagan, who said in a speech on March 13, 1985: “I have my veto pen drawn and ready for any tax increase that Congress might even think of sending up. And I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.”        Saying that something “made my/his/her day” — either as expression of true happiness or as a sardonic way of indicating displeasure — predates Sudden Impact. “Go ahead, make my day” was probably also used occasionally before 1983. But the movie made it a common, oft-heard idiom. Many sources attribute the inclusion of the line in Sudden Impact to Charles B. Pierce, who received a “story by” credit in the film. Pierce claimed he adapted it from a warning his father gave him frequently when he was growing up.

A RECENT USE RELATED TO A SUPREME COURT CASE: “Clint Eastwood: Go ahead, make my gay friends happy by allowing them to get married.”        Headline for a story posted on the Conservative website DailyCaller.com on Feb. 28, 2013        This snarky post lamented the fact that Eastwood was one of dozens of prominent Republicans who signed a legal brief urging the US Supreme Court to strike down Prop 8, the California ballot initiative that banned gay marriage, and affirm that marriage is a basic matter of equal rights under the US Constitution. In a landmark decision issued on June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court did just that, making it a banner day for all people who supported marriage equality.          Eastwood eloquently expressed his personal views on same sex marriage and people who opposed it in an interview published in the October 2011 issue of GQ magazine. He told GQ: “These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn't be making a deal out of...They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’— don't give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”

A MOVIE LINE THAT’S READS FUNNIER THAN IT IS ON SCREEN: “Go ahead, make me gay.”        The catchphrase of “Flirty Harry”        Flirty Harry, originally a minor character in The Underground Comedy Movie (1999), was resurrected and made a lead character in the more recent film, InAPPropriate Comedy (2013), both of which were directed by comedian Vince Offer.        Offer played Harry in The Underground Comedy Movie. Actor Adrien Brody is Harry in InAPPropriate Comedy.        Both films were panned by critics and bombed at the box office.

THE HELL’S KITCHEN VARIATION: “Go ahead, make my dinner!”        An icanhascheezburger.com version featuring the world’s toughest chef, Gordon Ramsay.

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“Give me liberty or give me death!” – or maybe a tax exemption, immortality, a Benz, or beer…

THE FAMED (AND POSSIBLY FALSE) REVOLUTIONARY WAR QUOTE: “Give me liberty or give me death!”        Attributed to Patrick Henry (1736-1799)        American attorney, politician and Founding Father        According to tradition, Henry said these words at the end of a speech he made in the Virginia House of Burgesses on March 23, 1775.        It’s true that, on that date, Henry gave an impassioned speech in favor of mobilizing the Virginia militia to fight against the British at a meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses. But neither Henry nor anyone else wrote down what he said at the time. Forty-two years later, a posthumous biography of Henry included a “reconstructed” version of the speech, based largely on the recollection of one aging judge who’d heard it. This popular biography, written by William Wirt, was the first source to put “Give me liberty or give me death!” in Henry’s mouth. It made the quote legendary and many books and websites have republished Wirt’s recreation of the speech as if it were an actual contemporary recording of what Henry said. Modern quote scholars like Fred Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, and Ralph Keyes, author of The Quote Verifier, view Wirt’s version of Henry’s speech with skepticism and doubt that Henry actually uttered his famous alleged quotation. (For more background, see this post on my This Day in Quotes site.)

THE MODERN TEA PARTY VARIATION: “Give me tax exempt 501(c)4 or give me death!”       Matt Davies        Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for Tribune Media Services and The Hearst Newspaper Group        Caption of a June 2013 political cartoon by Davies lampooning the outrage of conservative Republicans over revelations that the IRS had challenged requests of Tea Party groups who wanted the tax exempt status supposedly reserved for organizations that are “operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.”

THE FIRESIGN THEATRE VERSION: “Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death”        The Firesign Theatre        American comedy troupe        Title of a Firesign album title released in 1998 by Rhino Records

THE LITIGIOUS EX-MISTRESS VERSION: “Give Me Hush Money Or Give Me Benz!!”        Headline of a TMZ.com story about basketball star Stephon Marbury and Thurayyah Mitchell, “the personal chef he boinked, while he was married, back in 2006.”        According to the story, Marbury had promised to pay Mitchell $900,000 to keep quiet about the affair, but stopped making payments around the $600,000 mark. Mitchell took him to court and a judge ordered him to pony up the remaining $331,584.50. When Mitchell didn’t pay up in a timely fashion, Mitchell went back to court, asking that Marbury be forced to give her his Mercedes-Benz and other assets to settle the debt.

AL BUNDY’S GREAT WINE VS. BEER RANT: “Americans don’t like wine. We like beer. Ice cold. Ice cold, best in a bottle, but find in any way you can get it, belching, burping, wake-up-in-a-pool-of-it beer. So let’s show them...Let’s strike a blow anywhere they dine alfresco, anywhere they eat Brie cheese, and anywhere they wear their pants up high around their waist in the European way. The only thing Americans understand is mindless Tom and Jerry cartoon violence. So, let’s go kick some elite butt. Give me beer, or give me death!”        Al Bundy (played by actor Ed O’Neill)         Part of a speech Al gives in the “Chicago Wine Party” episode of the American comedy TV show Married with Children (Season 7, Ep. 7, Nov. 1, 1992)        In this episode, he makes the speech to a group of fellow beer fans who oppose a City Council plan to increase the local tax on beer but not on wine.

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“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

THE FAMOUS MISQUOTE: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”        Attributed to Mark Twain (1835-1910)        American humorist, journalist, novelist and social critic        According to a widely-repeated legend, Twain made this quip when he heard there were rumors he had died and that one newspaper had printed his obituary. Another common variation of the line uses the words “…have been greatly exaggerated.” Sometimes the quip is given as “Reports of my death are grossly exaggerated.”        However, all of the commonly-heard versions using “greatly exaggerated” or “grossly exaggerated” are misquotes.        As noted in many scholarly books of quotations and explained in a post on my This Day in Quotes blog, what Twain actually said was “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”        The origin of the more familiar misquote versions of Twain’s response seems to be an embellished anecdote in Chapter 197 of Albert Bigelow Paine’s biography of Twain, which was published in 1912, two years after Twain’s death.

A RECENT PARAPHRASE BY PRESIDENT OBAMA: “As Mark Twain said, you know, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.”        President Barack Obama        His response during a White House press conference on April 30, 2013, when a reporter asked if he still had the political “juice” needed to get his legislative proposals passed by Congress, in light of his recent high profile failures to get gun control and budget legislation approved.

THE DICK CHENEY INVERSE PARAPHRASE: “The rumors that Cheney is alive are somewhat exaggerated. It’s Mark Twain in reverse.”        Hans Blix        Swedish diplomat and politician        His answer in a 2004 interview in the New York Times when asked if US Vice President Dick Cheney had seemed more “wooden” than President George W. Bush during a meeting Blix had with them prior to the Second Gulf War (a.k.a. the 2003 invasion of Iraq).        Blix led the international weapons inspection teams charged with determining if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a claim Bush and Cheney pushed as the main reason to invade the country. As Blix pointed out, no WMDs were found. Of course, this fact was was dismissed by Bush and Cheney.

THE SOAP OPERA VERSION: “Rumors of my chastity have been greatly exaggerated.”        Donna Martin, a character played by actress Tori Spelling in the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210        One of her wisecracks in the “Reunion” episode (Season 8, Ep. 27, first aired April 15, 1998)

THE SPACE OPERA VERSION: “Reports of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated.”        Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by actor Patrick Stewart        A quip Picard makes in the movie Star Trek: First Contact (1996), in which some crew members of the USS Enterprise are “assimilated” by the part-machine, part-organic, hive-like life form(s) called the Borg.

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“Art for art’s sake.” (“L’art pour l’art.”)

COUSIN’S FAMOUS EARLY USE: “Art for art’s sake.” (“L’art pour l’art”)        Victor Cousin (1792-1867)        French philosopher         Famous phrase first used by Cousin in a lecture at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) in 1818        Cousin is widely credited with either coining or uttering the first notable public use of the phrase “l’art pour l’art,” during his lecture on aesthetics titled “Du Vrai, du Beau, et du Bien” (“Truth, Beauty and Goodness”). In his hifalutin’ remarks on those topics, Cousin said:          “We must have religion for religion’s sake, morality for morality’s sake, as with art for art’s sake...the beautiful cannot be the way to what is useful, or to what is good, or to what is holy; it leads only to itself.”          Cousin’s use gave the concept of “art for art’s sake” it’s initial notoriety. However, credit for popularizing and promoting it to encourage the creation of art that is not limited by realism or social usefulness is generally given to the French writer and art critic Théophile Gautier, who began using it in the mid-1830s. It became a philosophical basis of the so-called Aesthetic Movement in art and literature that developed in the 19th Century.

HUGO’S OBSERVATION: “Art for art’s sake exists in nature more than is believed.”         Victor Hugo (1802-1885)         French novelist, playwright and poet        From his novel L’Homme Qui Rit (The Man Who Laughs), first published in 1869

CAO YU’S OBSERVATION: “Art for art’s sake is a philosophy of the well-fed.”         Cao Yu (1910-1996)        Chinese playwright        Quoted in the London Observer, April 13, 1980

SAND’S VISIONARY VARIATION: “Art for art’s sake is an empty phrase. Art for the sake of the true, art for the sake of the good and the beautiful, that is the faith I am searching for.”         George Sand (pseudonym of Baroness Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin; 1804-1876)        French writer        Comment in a letter to her friend Alexandre Saint-Jean in 1872

FREBERG’S PECUNIARY VARIATION: “ARS GRATIA PECUNIAE.” (“Art for the sake of money.”)        Stan Freberg (b. 1926)        American comic genius and occasional ad man        Motto on the “The Great Seal of Freberg,” which features a a seal with sunglasses. Devised for his advertising agency “Freberg Ltd. (But Not Very).”

ABBEY’S IDEOLOGY VARIATION: “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”        Edward Abbey (1927-1989)        American writer and environmental activist        In his article “Grow and Die,” published in Penthouse magazine, September 1979

THE MOVIE VERSION: “ARS GRATIA ARTIS”        The famed motto of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios        Around 1916, Hollywood publicist Howard Dietz was asked to develop a motto for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. He came up with “Ars gratia artis,” a Latin version of the phrase “art for art’s sake.”        Through most of the decades since then, the motto has appeared over the image of a roaring lion at the beginning of films produced by MGM.

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“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

THE HEAVENLY CONUNDRUM POPULARIZED BY A SONG: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”        Tom (Thomas Henry) Delaney (1889-1963)        African-American blues and jazz composer, pianist for Ethel Waters        Title of (and lyric from) a song Delany wrote sometime prior to 1948        According to research by quote maven and Oxford English Dictionary contributor Barry Popik, the earliest verifiable use of this insightful saying seems to be as a song title and lyric by Delaney. The date of the song’s composition is uncertain, but it was mentioned as one of Delaney’s popular sings in an article about him in The Afro American newspaper on October 16, 1948. Delaney was a prolific blues and jazz music composer whose career started in the 1920s. His early hits included “Down Home Blues” (1921), popularized by Ethel Waters, and “Jazz Me Blues,” first recorded by Lillyn Brown, the “Indian Princess,” in 1921 and later covered by many other jazz singers and musicians. In 1950, a version of “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die” was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, using the spelling “Ev’rybody wants to go to Heaven (But Nobody Wants to Die).” The writing credits on that popular version were given to three people: Tom Delaney and the pioneering African-American comedians and musicians Timmie Rogers and Al Fields. (There’s a video of Rogers performing it on YouTube.) One recent book cites “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die” as an African-American proverb, which suggests that it might not have been coined by Delaney. However, I searched the Internet and online newspaper archives and, although I did find a few examples of similar quotes, I found no prior uses of the specific line used in Delaney’s song. So, at the least, his song appears to have popularized the saying and it looks like Delaney may have coined it. Since 1950, the line has been appropriated as the title of, or in the lyrics of, other songs by various musicians, including bluesman Albert King and country stars Loretta Lynn and Kenny Chesney. My own favorite musical use of the line is in the song “Equal Rights,” by the late Reggae music pioneer Peter Tosh. (NOTE: The illustration at left is from a greeting card sold on Zazzle.com. I’m not quite sure what occasion it’s supposed to be used for.)

THE TAX CONUNDRUM: “The modern budget covers many items for community benefit unknown a century ago... While nobody wants high taxes, practically everybody wants the things that make taxes high.”         The Wisconsin State Tax Commission        This observation, from the Commission’s Biennial Report to the Wisconsin Legislature in 1916, seems just as true now as it was nearly a century ago.

THE PEACE AND FREEDOM VS. WAR AND TYRANNY CONUNDRUM: “Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings and actions that make for peace and freedom. Conversely almost nobody wants war or tyranny; but a great many people find an intense pleasure in the thoughts, feelings and actions that make for war and tyranny.”        Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)        British writer and social critic        From one of the essays included in Huxley’s book Brave New World Revisited (1958)

THE REGULATION CONUNDRUM: “Nobody wants to be regulated, but everybody wants everybody else regulated.”          George W. Cartwright (1863-1920)         California businessman and state senator        From a speech included in his book Mutual Interests of Labor and Capital (1918)

THE OLD AGE CONUNDRUM: “Every man wants to live long, but no man wants to be old.”         Said to be an ancient Turkish Proverb

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