Oxymoron

[Fred Shapiro]

yOn Sat, 26 Mar 2005, James A. Landau wrote:

> OT:  "you can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think" was used
> in one of Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Bar" stories in Analog Science
> Fiction sometime in the late 1970's or possibly early 1980's.  Robinson
> prides himself (with good cause) as a punster, so he probably originated
> that punch line, or at least thought he did.  However, that does not
> rule out Dorothy Parker having originated it independently at an earlier
> date.

This was, of course, Dorothy Parker's greatest witticism.  One would hope
Spider Robinson was literate enough to know that.

Fred Shapiro


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