Identity of the non-existent

[Wilson Gray]

I used to hate Catch-22 myself because, having spent my service life
as an enlisted man, I couldn't get ready for a book that claimed that
_officers_ had any reason worthy of consideration to be "nervous in
the service."

-Wilson

On 10/4/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Identity of the non-existent
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  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
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org