It's a case for Fred Shapiro!

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:13 PM -0500 1/25/01, Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:
>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> writes:
>
>>>>>>
>Then there's the related "Call me whatever you want, as long as it's
>not late for dinner"
><<<<<
>
>Distinguo, Larry.
>
>I've only ever heard it as something like
>      Call me anything you like,* just don't call me late for dinner.

I agree you have to work a bit harder in my version, but I have heard
it this way, e.g. from Steve Somers of WFAN sports radio.

>If you don't have "call" in the second clause, you risk losing the pun that
>is the whole point of the line.
>
>* <crossthreading> punctuate at will </crossthreading>
>
Cross-threading indeed.  I had the analogous hesitation in
punctuating the "I shall drown,* no one will save me" pair a few
minutes ago.

L