MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Quotes

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Tue Mar 5 22:45:22 UTC 2013


LH
> There's an interesting echo there of "If you're not part of
> the solution you're part of the problem" (Eldridge Cleaver;
> late 60s maybe?).  And more tangentially the ones with
> bugs and windshield, or the various times when you get
> the bear and vice versa.  A big family.  But this one and
> Cleaver's have a bit more overlap, starting with the syntax.

Eldridge Cleaver's quote is listed in the Yale Book of Quotations
(YBQ) and the Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (DMP).

[Excerpt from YBQ]
You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.

Speech to San Francisco Barristers’ Club, San Francisco, Cal., Sept.
1968. An earlier example of a similar formulation in the Guthrian
(Guthrie Center, Iowa), 24 Jan. 1961: "Every person is either part of
the problem, or part of the solution."
[End excerpt from YBQ]

DMP traces the general expression back to 1937. Here is a link into
GB. DMP is in preview mode so the entry is readable (unless too many
people read it):

http://books.google.com/books?id=LPZfi4ADcusC&q=+%22the+solution%22#v=snippet&

The wonderful DMP also has entries for:
Sometimes (Some days) you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the
bug (bird).
Sometimes (Some days) you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.

I helped Charlie by providing information for the "get the bear" entry
via the ADS list back in the halcyon days July 2010.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;X0ML4Q;201007261232400400D

Garson

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