Most Notable Quotations of 2010

[Jonathan Lighter]

The nature and sequence of the vocalic phonemes, moreover, precisely echo /
ou i: ou /
the chant of the Wicked Witch's guards in _The Wizard of Oz_.

Yes, quote of the year.

JL


On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Most Notable Quotations of 2010
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I like "Don't retreat! Reload!" for so many reasons.
>
> 1. It covers "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" as well as
> "Don't get mad, get even!"
>
> 2. It's shorter than they are.
>
> 3. It both alliterates and assonates. Five syllables with only two vocalic
> phonemes!
>
> 4. It implies that the world is uniformly a violent, desperate,
> zero-sum place where lead are always flying - the way pop culture lies it!
>
> 5. It makes the adviser sound like she's got lots more sense and
> guts than the advisee - always useful when offering advice.
>
> 6. It can also be used in debates on Iraq and Afghanistan
>
> Pretty nifty for four short words!
>
> JL
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
>
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> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Most Notable Quotations of 2010
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 9:14 PM -0500 11/19/10, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > >I am now working on my list for the Associated Press of the top 10
> > >most notable quotations of the year.  By "notable" I mean
> > >"important" or "famous" or "particularly revealing of the spirit of
> > >our times" rather than necessarily being eloquent or admirable.
> > >
> > >Some of the possibiliities (many of them very helpfully suggested by
> > >Ben Zimmer) include:
> > >
> > >Government isn't what our Founding Fathers put into the Constitution.
> > >Sharron Angle
> > >
> > >I'd like my life back.
> > >Tony Hayward
> > >
> > >Dude, you have no Koran!
> > >Jacob Isom
> > >
> > >I'm going to take my talents to South Beach.
> > >LeBron James
> > >
> > >I'm not a witch.  I'm nothing you've heard.  I'm you.
> > >Christine O'Donnell
> > >
> > >We live in hard times, not End Times.
> > >Jon Stewart
> > >
> > >I would welcome suggestions of additional quotes from 2010,
> > >particularly ones from politics or popular culture or entertainment
> > >or sports or business or technology.
> > >
> > >Fred Shapiro
> > >
> >
> > Did anyone have any response to Jon's posting from Wednesday re
> > "Don't retreat! Reload!"--
> >
> > Is Sarah Palin really the coiner of this new proverb with over 1,000,000
> > raw
> > Google hits?
> >
> > GB has nothing before SP, 2010.
> >
> > ?  If not, I think it's worth adding to the list.  At least it's
> > something she actually says (repeatedly), as opposed to "I can see
> > Russia from my house"....
> >
> > LH
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org