believe it or not (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nor half as clever.

JL

On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 5:55 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: believe it or not (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12/10/2012 02:28 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >Caveats: NONE
> >
> >Perhaps a precursor to Wolfgang Pauli's "That's not right, that's not
> >even wrong."?
>
> But those are not two of the flavors of quarks.
>
> Joel
>
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > > Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> > > Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012 12:20 PM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject: believe it or not
> > >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >---------------
> > > --------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      believe it or not
> > >
> >-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > --------
> > >
> > > Here's a folk saying that seems to have been overlooked despite its
> > > excellence:
> > >
> > > 1899 _The Speaker_  (London) (Jan. 28) 115: But they hardly seem to
> > > have attained that highest stage of art when a man is "such a liar
> >that
> > > you cannot even believe the opposite of what he says."
> > >
> > > 1947 _Soviet Russia Today_ XV (No. 8) 6 [GB snippet]: It reminds me
> > > sometimes of the Irishman who said of another Irishman, "The man is
> > > such a liar that you cannot even believe the opposite of what he
> >says."
> > >
> > > 1963 Richard W. Rowan _Cuba: The Big Red Lie_  (Kingston, N.Y.: Quinn)
> > > 41:
> > > A famous Chief of Intelligence once said of a foreign diplomat from
> > > whom it had been hoped to gain certain vital intelligence: "You can't
> > > even believe the opposite of what he says."
> > >
> > > 1968 D. N. Pritt, in _Labour Monthly_ (March) 142: That government has
> > > now reached the class described by an Irishman who said that his
> > > opponent was "such a liar that you cannot even believe the opposite of
> > > what he says."
> > >
> > > 1988 _Jewish Frontier_ LV [GB snippet]: The type Abba Eban had in mind
> > > when he quipped: "You can't even believe the opposite of what he
> >says."
> > >
> > > 2010
> > >
> >http://www.elitetrader.com/vB/showthread.php?s=0d2085a3ccd00d11cdcb64c1
> > > 371c9dae&postid=2879703:
> > > Anything Soros says is suspect. Every word out of his mouth is self-
> > > serving. You probably cannot even believe the opposite of what he says
> > > .
> > >
> > > 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
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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