Aeschylus, G.B. Shaw at it again

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Thu Apr 14 00:22:45 UTC 2011


You're right, Jon; sorry about the confusion.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 8:05 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Aeschylus, G.B. Shaw at it again

Fred means the one about teaching a pig to sing.

JL

On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 7:56 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Aeschylus, G.B. Shaw at it again
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The "pig" quote is in the Yale Book of Quotations, under Robert A.
> Heinlein.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 9:32 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Aeschylus, G.B. Shaw at it again
>
> According to Simon van Booy, ed, _Why Do We Fight?_ (N.Y.: Harper
> Perennial,
> 2010), the Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote the immortal words, "In war,
> truth is the first casualty."
>
> The same work improbably attributes the following to George Bernard Shaw
> (as
> do thousands of websites): "I learned long ago, never wrestle with a pig;
> you get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."
>
> The latter ought to be in YBQ, attributed perhaps to "Anonymous," but it
> isn't.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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

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