Modern Proverbs appeal

[James A. Landau]

"Don't make a federal case out of it."  Circa 1960 a man named Sam Thompson appealed a ten-dollar fine to the US Supreme Court---and won.  (Thompson vs. City of Louisville).  This was, I might add, one of the ACLU's finer moments.

As I heard the story, Thompson's lawyer (a prominent local attorney and ACLU advocate) was told by the judge "Don't make a federal case out of this", which remark inspired him to appeal to the Supreme Court (Kentucky law does not provide any appeal process for municipal police courts, in which Thompson was tried, so by default an appeal goes directly to the Supreme  Court).  Actually he had to go to the local Federal District Court to get a ninety-day extension on the $10 fine so that he would have time to write and submit his appeal.

"The difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a little longer"  I believe this was a World War II motto of one of the Armed Forces, but I don't know which one.

"May the Force be with you"
"Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here"
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more"
and of course the much-parodied opening lines of the Superman TV show (aside: did the political activist group People for the American Way take that name from the Superman intro?)

"Less is more"

"The boss may not always be right, but he's always the boss"  This sign hung in my father's office in the 1950's.

"ASSUME means you make an ASS out of U and ME"

"that's not a bug, it's a feature" and I'm sure people have said "that's not a feature, it's a bug"

"Winston tastes good like a cigarette shoulg"  I don't suppose advertising slogans belong here, but this one had an interesting history.  So many purists jumped on the use of "like" for "as" that a student making the same grammatical error might be told "you have a great future in the advertising business".  Eventually the cigarette company in question came up with a new slogan "What to you want, good grammar or good taste?" and the purists gleefully pointed out that the first word should have been "which".

In California there was a movement to have the Highway Patrol imitate British police officers and patrol without guns.  Needless to say, there was considerable opposition to this idea, which is why you see so many cars with bumper stickers reading "Support your right to arm bears"

    - James A. Landau

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