query for Fred (or anyone else) on movie line

[Laurence Horn]

Dave Wilton writes:
>  > -----Original Message-----
>>  From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
>>  Of Mullins, Bill
>>  Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 11:17 AM
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  Subject: Re: query for Fred (or anyone else) on movie line
>>
>>
>>  One of us should just rent the damn thing, but I believe it was because
>>  Nuke wanted to throw Heat, to "announce my presence with authority" --
>>  the Deuce was at another time.
>>
>
>It's "Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well."

Aha!  So this ("Speak well" vs. "Be kind") does seem quite different
from the "Tea and Sympathy" line, although I'd guess it's still
modeled on it.  It's clear that the borrowing in my novel (_Lost in
the Forest_, by Sue Miller) is a direct allusion to the "Tea and
Sympathy" line (it's spoken by a sardonic older man to a young girl
as "And when you speak of me, be kind") and not to that in "Bull
Durham", although the latter is, I would maintain, the best baseball
movie ever made.  Unfortunately, it's been all downhill for Kevin
Costner since, in the negative sense of that enantionymic dictum...
(Wonder if he's the one responsible for ad-libbing the line into the
screenplay.)

L

>A soundbite of the line can be found at
>http://www.sg-1.net/audiotrax.do?wma=BULLDURH-CL07_TheDuce.wma&artist=Kevin%
>20Costner%20(Crash)&title=BULLDURH-CL07_TheDuce.wma&desc=BULLDURH-CL07_TheDu
>ce.wma
>
>The "announce my presence with authority" is earlier in the movie.
>
>--Dave Wilton
>   dave at wilton.net
>   http://www.wilton.net