Viral Quotes: Remark about a funeral: I approve of it (attrib Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar 1887; attrib Mark Twain 1938)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon May 9 17:12:26 UTC 2011


At 12:36 PM -0400 5/9/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Common when I was a kid, but I haven't heard it in many years.
>
>The orig. sense seems to have been "It's your affair"

(+ "You'll be sorry!")

>rather than "It's your
>opportunity to destroy yourself."
>
>Lowdown in HDAS.
>

Ah, under "funeral", I take it.  I'll check in A-G tonight.

LH

>On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: Viral Quotes: Remark about a funeral: I approve of it
>>  (attrib
>>               Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar 1887; attrib Mark Twain 1938)
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Speaking of which, how about "It's your funeral", with the usual
>  > current rhetorical force?
>>

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