"Is this a great country, or what?"

[George Thompson]

In a Doonesbury strip of the mid or late 80s, Duke summarizes to
Oliver North, or his stand-in, the many ways North betrayed his
country, and the many ways he was richly rewarded for doing so.  In
the last panel, North, or his doppelganger, says, "Is this a great
country, or what?"
(I forget whether the character was expressly designated as North, or
whether the identificaion was merely made very obvious.)
Now that I think of it, the complete Doonesbury was issued on a CD-Rom
a few years ago, and I own it, if I can find it.

I would suppose this sort of cynical sentiment has been expressed
since the Adams administration, but in similar words: "this really is
a great country!" or the like. Maybe not.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Thursday, March 16, 2006 3:52 pm
Subject: "Is this a great country, or what?"

> Does anybody have an idea what the source of this is?
>
> Geoff Nunberg
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org