Doing badly what should not be attempted?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Something like, "It's like a bear (or a 'dog'?) riding a bicycle (or 'walking on two legs'?). It's not that he does it badly, it's that he can do it at all."

  I haven't checked these on Google.

  JL

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
Subject: Doing badly what should not be attempted?
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The following has provoked neurons, but not sufficiently:

"It's sad watching a child do badly what a child should not attempt
to do at all."

Is there a well-known antecedent, and spoken by whom? It's not, of
course, "Either do not attempt at all, or go through with it."--Ovid.

Joel

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