[Ads-l] Saying: Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Last year I found a January 1962 citation for the expression in the
subject line. Now I am planning to create an entry for the QI website.
Maybe someone can find a superior citation.

The saying is almost obsolete.  Is there a replacement?

Never argue with a newsite that buys bandwidth by the petabyte.
Never argue with the people who control the search engine.
Never argue with the people who operate the top AI.

General Background: The saying is listed in "The Dictionary of Modern
Proverbs" (DMP) which provides a precursor in 1931 and a solid match
in the 1964 within the book "My Indiana" by Irving Leibowitz.

The text of the 1964 cite credits the phrase to "Congressman Charles
Brownson" according to a Google Books snippet. However, the DMP says
"Congressman Charles Bornson". Hence, I would like to look at this
citation in hardcopy. Maybe there are multiple editions of "My
Indiana" or maybe "Bornson" is a typo.

Barry Popik has a webpage on the topic (dated 2009), and he also lists
the 1964 book as the first strong match. Popik gives the spelling
"Brownson".

"The Quote Verifier" has an entry and notes that: "When credit is
given to anyone at all, it most often goes to Mark Twain sometimes to
Ben Franklin, or Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, H. L. Mencken, Will
Rogers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt . . ."

"The Yale Book of Quotations" notes that the saying is sometimes
called "Greener’s Law" and presents a 1978 citation.



Here are the details of the 1962 citation. The saying was employed by
Roger Branigin who became the governor of Indiana a few years later in
1965.



[ref] 1962 January 15, The Indianapolis News, Economy, Precision Urged
on Pressmen, Quote Page 17, Column 7 and 8, Indianapolis, Indiana.
(Newspapers_com)[/ref]

[Begin except]
Roger Branigin, Lafayette attorney, spoke last night at the annual
dinner of the group, a highlight of the first day of the session. More
than 600 persons heard the Hoosier humorist.

Branigin, active for years in Democratic politics and an aspirant for
the nomination for governor in 1955, said in referring to newspaper
publishers, "I never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel."
[End excerpt]

Garson

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