well-traveled snowclone

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf. the Pamglossian line from George Axelrod, Al Hine, Larry H.
Johnson, _Lord Love a Duck_ (1966) (minister loq.): "Remember, prayers
*are*  answered.  Because whatever happens - that's the answer!"

Worthy of YBQ if it isn't there.

JL

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 2:58 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: well-traveled snowclone
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And this, a little earlier:
>
> 1900  S. B. Rossiter, “A Message to the Auxiliaries of the McAll
> Association of America,” _American McAll Record_ 18, no. 1 (Feb.) 7 (in a
> quoted letter from the author, said to have been written the previous Dec.):
> “What is crisis?  One of two things.  Opportunity or defeat.  Can God suffer
> defeat?  No.  Then crisis is opportunity.”
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Charles C Doyle [cdoyle at UGA.EDU]
> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 1:04
> PM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Aside from the matter of the pictograph, in the Modern Proverbs files we
> have this for the English proverb "A crisis is an opportunity" (it might be
> noteworthy that the saying occurs in a "missionary" magazine):
>
> 1904  C. P. Middleton, “The Present Crisis,” _Women’s Missionary Magazine_
> (of the United Free Church of Scotland) 37: 286:  “A crisis is an
> opportunity; and our chief concern should be lest [sic] we should fail to
> use this opportunity aright.”
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Ben
> Zimmer [bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU]
> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 12:27 PM
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >  An old business snowclone involves the alleged danger/opportunity or
> > risk/opportunity duality in a single character. Another version that
> > made it into Tom Wolfe's novels is that the Chinese word for "crisis" is
> > composed of two symbols--for danger and for opportunity.
> >
> > Language Log had covered this before:
> >
> > http://bit.ly/c9HFXl
> >
> > with a nod to a more direct debunking
> >
> > http://bit.ly/cWaoWs
> >
> > This morning, on Colorado Public Radio, Tom Tancredo invented yet
> > another version:
> >
> > "Chinese symbol for opportunity and problem is the same symbol."
>
> For historical background on the spread of the trope, both in its
> "crisis = danger + opportunity" and "crisis = opportunity" variants,
> see my Language Log post:
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004343.html
>
> Related posts listed here:
>
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1212
>
> --bgz
>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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