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

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Sep 17 20:38:42 UTC 2013


On Sep 17, 2013, at 4:10 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 9/16/2013 08:31 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> And then there are fictional ones, like Sherlock Holmes's
>> "Elementary, my dear Watson" or Ilsa(Ingrid Bergman's character in
>> Casablanca)'s "Play it again, Sam."
>
> Perhaps Larry didn't consider whether or not Ilsa actually said this
> as important, since it has become iconic, but I believe she merely
> said "Play it, Sam."
>
I was claiming that neither of the canonical lines was actually said, although it's true that both Ilsa and Rick *almost* said the latter one (without the "again"), and it's Conan Doyle's Sherlock and not Basil Rathbone et al's who never uttered the former.  And Juliet never asked "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou?" either.

LH

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