"double negative"; name "Johnjoe"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hard to believe, I know, but I didn't know today was Marjoe's birthday till Wackipedia told me.  Which means maybe it isn't.

  But I was pretty sure he was still alive.  Waki confirmed it. Which means maybe he isn't.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "double negative"; name "Johnjoe"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there anything that you don't know the minutiae of, Jon? ;-) Uh,
I'm assuming that you knew that off the top of your head and that you
didn't google him. 'Cause, if you did, then I'm *not* impressed. :-)

-Wilson

On Jan 14, 2008 9:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "double negative"; name "Johnjoe"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Today's his birthday. How come he ain't running for Prez?
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "double negative"; name "Johnjoe"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> WRT "JohnJoe": Have we all forgotten the late, great American
> minister, preacher, actor, and author, Marjoe (< Mary Joseph) Gortner?
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Jan 13, 2008 7:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: "double negative"; name "Johnjoe"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Saw this yesterday, serendipitously as usual:
> >
> > 2006 Ian McEwan in Robin Headlam Wells & Johnjoe McFadden _ (London: Continuum) 41: Their paper...ended with the famously modest conclusion: 'It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.' 'It has not escaped our notice...' - the drawing-room politesse of the double negative is touchingly transparent. It roughly translates as 'Look at us everybody! We've found the mechanism by which life on earth replicates, we're excited as hell and can't sleep a wink...'
> >
> > Seems to mean "single negative," unless somebody can reason more deviously.
> >
> > Ian McEwan, CBE, is a well-known English novelist.
> >
> > BTW, a Google search unearths a handful of other "Johnjoes," spelled sic. Most appear to be Irish, but 22,000 hits - most for McFadden - are daunting to search.
> >
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
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> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
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--
All say, "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'l Clemens

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