Identity of the non-existent

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Wed Oct 4 13:34:38 UTC 2006


 1961 J. Heller _Catch-22_ (N.Y.: Simon & Schuster) 179: " ' What the hell are you so upset about?...I thought you didn't believe in God.'

  " ' I don't,' ...sobbed [Lt. Scheisskopf's wife], bursting violently into tears. 'But the God I don't believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He's not the mean and stupid God you make Him out to be.'

  " ' Yossarian laughed and turned her arm loose. 'Let's have a little more religious freedom between us,' he proposed obligingly. 'You don't believe in the God you want to, and I won't believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?'

  "That was the most illogical Thanksgiving he could ever remember spending...."

  (I've had students who _hate_ this book. Sheesh !)

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Identity of the non-existent
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Though I can't find my copy of Catch-22, I'm sure there's an episode in which Yossarian and another character (perhaps a nurse) engage in a heated argument about the nature of the God whom neither believes in.

BTW: In Larry's joke, the clause "You'll have to take it [coffee] without milk" sounds strange to me; I would say (and therefore expect to hear) "You'll have to HAVE it without milk." I believe I have heard the query, from a coffee vendor, "How do you take it?" but "How do you want it?" would sound a lot more normal.

--Charlie
______________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 13:52:18 -0400
>From: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: ah/ awe
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>At 11:55 AM -0400 10/3/06, Charles Doyle wrote:
>>If we're going to be scientific, it is important to establish with precision the identity of the substance that the moon is not made of . . . .
>>
>>--Charlie
>
>Indeed...
>
>"I'd like a cup of coffee without cream."
>"Sorry, we're out of cream. You'll have to take it without milk."
>
>L
>
>>_____________________________________________
>>
>>---- Original message ----
>>>Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 11:13:57 EDT
>>>From: RonButters at AOL.COM
>>>Subject: Re: ? ? ? Re: [ADS-L] ah/ awe
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>>In a message dated 10/3/06 11:09:54 AM, cdoyle at UGA.EDU writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Green PEAS??
>>>>
>>>
>>>Sorry, I should have said, "the opinion that normal people from Connecticut have a monophthongal vowel in the word 'right' has the scientific status of a theory that the moon is made of green CHIVES."

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