Doing badly what should not be attempted?

[Wilson Gray]

It's something like:

"A woman preaching is like a dog walking upon its hind legs. One is
surprised, not because it is done well, but because it is done at
all."

-Wilson

On 9/9/06, Barbara Need <nee1 at midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Doing badly what should not be attempted?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I believe the original of the bear/dog version was Johnson's comment
> about women preaching. (Not at hand, of course, so the details are a
> little shaky.)
>
> Barbara
>
> >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:
> >   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> >Subject: Doing badly what should not be attempted?
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >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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--
-Wilson
----
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.

--Sam Clemens

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