another query about formulas/quotes

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:56 AM -0700 7/25/10, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/bear-music/
>
>on "some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you" (in a
>number of variants).
>
>arnold
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

And, speaking of musical renditions, there's the related observation:

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug." (as in
the song by Dire Straits)
(Continues in the same vein: "Sometimes you're the Louisville
Slugger, sometimes you're the ball".  But I've always thought the
windshield/bug scenario was especially vivid.)

Then there are the preference statements:

I'd rather be a hammer than a nail.
Yes I would.
If I only could,
I surely would.
(Paul Simon, El Condor Pasa)

Not quite the same, but there is an implication that one is sometimes
the hammer/windshield and sometimes the nail/bug.  (But then again,
getting nailed in this situation is not that different from getting
hammered.)

LH

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