Q: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Jun 2 00:49:21 UTC 2010


At 6:15 PM -0400 6/1/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Larry, I didn't see any confirmation to Mark or Groucho in the ADS-L
>archives.  Or are you, as usual, joshing us?
>
>Joel

Apologies to Joel.  I just noticed that I introduced another
ambiguity into my claim this afternoon.  What I meant was that I was
able to confirm *today* (not that I did so in 2006, even though
that's what it looks like I was claiming) that the line was authored
by Twain and/or Groucho.  (Especially the latter, as it turns out.)

That'll teach me to be flippant, at least while using murky syntax.

LH

>At 6/1/2010 03:12 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>At 2:22 PM -0400 6/1/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>Having now recalled that this has been discussed before (in Nov.
>>>2006), I find in the (ADS-L) archives that I wrote nearly the same
>>>information then.  I suggested someone ask Oettinger.  No-one
>>>reported back that they had.
>>>
>>>Joel
>>
>>And in Nov. 2006 I mentioned recalling the existence of a poem that
>>included both these lines, but being unable to locate said poem on
>>the web.  This is still the case.  I was able to confirm, however,
>>that the observation that time flies like an arrow and fruit flies
>>like a banana was made by Mark Twain and Groucho Marx.
>>Independently, I presume, although you never know.  And inside of a
>>dog, those fruit flies are too dark to see.
>>
>>LH

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