[Ads-l] Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?

Sat May 6 21:56:40 UTC 2017

Barry has updated his entry again. He found an excellent citation in March 1962.

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/washington_dc_is_12_square_miles/

[Begin excerpt from Barry Popik's article]
26 March 1962, The Star-News (Chula Vista, CA), “Washingtonians: That
Odd Tribe” by Art Hoppe, pg. 8-B, col. 4:

Well, Washington is several miles square and about as tall, say, as
the Washington Monument, give or take a little. It is surrounded on
all four sides by reality.
[End excerpt from Barry article]

Here is another variant I found in December 1962. It refers to the
Pentagon instead of Washington.

Date: December 03, 1962
Newspaper: The Huntsville Times
Newspaper Location: Huntsville, Alabama
Article: Defense in a Realistic World
Quote Page 4, Column 1
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin excerpt]
THE PENTAGON, it has been said, is a building surrounded on five sides
by reality.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 4:37 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> On May 6, 2017, at 10:11 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> A newspaper check reveals relatively recent instances of other cities
>> characterized in similar terms but not by Andrew Johnson.
>>
>> Possibly relevant unconsciously is Rod Serling's weekly claim (1960-61
>> season) that the Twilight Zone is "a wondrous land whose borders
>
> “whose boundaries are that of imagination”, actually—but still plural
>
>> are that
>> [sic] of imagination."
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 12:32 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
>> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Barry Popik found some great citations back to 1976 and shared his
>>> data on his website here:
>>>
>>> http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/
>>> washington_dc_is_12_square_miles/
>>>
>>> Following Barry's lead I've found a snippet match in Google Books that
>>> seems to be in a 1967 book.
>>>
>>> Year: 1967
>>> Title: The Department of Housing and Urban Development [by] John B.
>>> Willmann.
>>> Author: John B. Willmann
>>> Publisher: New York, Praeger
>>> Quote Page 117 (GB)
>>> Database: Google Books Snippet match; HathiTrust shows a match also;
>>> data may be inaccurate and should be verified with hardcopy
>>>
>>> [Begin extracted text]
>>> "We have a significant, difficult-to-define job to do in
>>> intergovernmental relations," Beckman has commented. "We try to keep
>>> our feet on the ground by recalling from time to time (Deputy
>>> Secretary of HUD) Bob Wood's definition of Washington as ten square
>>> miles surrounded by reality.
>>> [End extracted text]
>>>
>>> Garson
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 4:54 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Washington DC was originally ten miles squared - or 100 square miles.
>>> It is smaller now, because corner was lopped off and given to Virginia.
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
>>> Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
>>>> Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 1:14:21 PM
>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>> Subject: Re: Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
>>>> Subject:      Re: Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -------------------
>>>>
>>>> Although I can't date this with any precision, I know I heard the phrase
>>> in=
>>>> the nineteen seventies, probably at a libertarian gathering, probably
>>> in H=
>>>> awaii. But the number was 24, not 12.=20
>>>>
>>>> FWIW
>>>>
>>>> Geoff
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>    =20
>>>> Geoffrey S. Nathan
>>>> WSU Information Privacy Officer
>>>> Professor, Linguistics Program
>>>> http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
>>>> +1 (313) 577-1259
>>>> On Half-time: Generally not in office on Monday or Fridays but I do
>>> read e=
>>>> mail.
>>>> Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send
>>> it t=
>>>> o anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email  looks.
>>>> =20
>>>>   =20
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
>>> Jonath=
>>>> an Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 2:20 PM
>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>> Subject: Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
>>>> =A0  =20
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -------------------=
>>>> ----
>>>> Sender:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 American Dialect Society <
>>> ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------------=
>>>> ----
>>>>
>>>> The New Yorker quotes AJ that Washington, DC, is "twelve square miles
>>>> bordered by reality."
>>>>
>>>> Despite the usual zillion raw Google hits, my Spidey-sense says fat
>>> chance.
>>>> And GB reveals nothing before 2008.
>>>>
>>>> I doubt that any 19th C. person would have been likely to say that any
>>>> physical location was "bordered by reality."
>>>>
>>>> If Johnson had said it, we should heard about it long before 2008.
>>>>
>>>> Its form reminds me, somehow, of a recent, well-known, witticism that I
>>>> cannot bring to mind.
>>>>
>>>> Has Barry or Garson looked into this?
>>>>
>>>> JL
>>>>
>>>> --=20
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>> truth."
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
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>>>> The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is dedicated to the study
>>> of=
>>>> the English language in North America, and of other languages, or
>>> dialects=
>>>> of other ...
>>>>    =
>>>>
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>>>>
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>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>
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