Quote: the toast of two continents (antedating Dorothy Parker variant 1956 October 15)

[Jonathan Lighter]

She knew that penguins can't offer toasts.

JL

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: the toast of two continents (antedating Dorothy
> Parker
>              variant 1956 October 15)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:14 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >FWIW, Parker must have known that Greenland isn't a continent. Besides,
> >being the toast of Australia, while not quite the same as Europe and North
> >America, would not be nearly as funny as Greenland, if Greenland were a
> >continent.
>
> Well, we do have independent evidence of her bibulosity, so maybe
> when she referred to Australia she was thinking of Antarctica. Inter
> alia, those penguins are already wearing tuxedos, so they're all set
> up for a toast.
>
> LH
>
> >;
> >"Asia and Africa" is funny (or used to be) because of the default
> assumption
> >that they were inhabited entirely by lustful primitives, peasants, and
> >warlords.
> >
> >Sounds to me like the G & A version is _faux_ Parker.
> >
> >JL
> >
> >
>
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