Graffito: "To Be Is To Do" "To Do Is To Be" "Do Be Do Be Do"

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Tue Sep 17 01:20:46 UTC 2013


Garson O'Toole wrote:
>> Thanks for your responses DAD and Wilson. It is interesting, I think,
>> that sometimes a major personality will be linked to a signature
>> statement / vocalization that is inaccurate or distorted:
>>
>> Cary Grant: Judy, Judy, Judy.
>> James Cagney: You dirty rat.

LH wrote:
> Not to (hereby) mention all those sports figures, e.g.
> Vince Lombardi: "Winning isn't everything, it's the *only* thing"
> Leo Durocher: "Nice guys finish last"
> Yogi Berra: possibly everything he was supposed to have said, including "I didn't say half the things I said"

Thanks, LH. Interestingly, there is evidence that Yogi Berra did make
the comment: "I really didn’t say everything I said" in 1986. Below is
a citation. Also, here is a link to the QI website category for "Yogi"
and a link to the entry for this quotation:

http://quoteinvestigator.com/category/yogi-berra/
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/12/30/yogi-didnt-say/

 [ref] 1986 February 24, “Color Yogi a Happy Guy; Now wearing Astros’
rainbow uniform, Berra’s relaxed, popular” by Steve Marcus, Section
Sports, Start Page 92, Newsday [Nassau and Suffolk Edition], Long
Island, New York. (ProQuest)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Berra was unveiled to the Southwest in the Astros’ winter caravan.
"Here he was a Hall of Famer coming down to the backwoods of Texas,"
publicist Rob Matwick said. "He was the most single sought-out person.
He led the team in stares."

Fans hung on Berra’s every word, hoping for a Berra-ism, many of which
have been said by others but attributed to Yogi. "I really didn’t say
everything I said," Berra said, creating another original.
[End excerpt]

Research on several additional Yogiisms has been completed and entries
will placed on the QI website over time. My late brother enjoyed
Yogiisms and used to ask me about them.


> And then there are fictional ones, like Sherlock Holmes's
> "Elementary, my dear Watson"

The Yale Book Quotations has valuable citations related to the
expression "Elementary, my dear Watson". I researched this interesting
topic several months ago, but haven't shared the new results yet. So I
will try to post to the list in the coming days.

Garson

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



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