Concept of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 15, 2011, at 2:59 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>> 
>> On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> Goes back so far that I remember it as "40 million Frenchmen…"
>> 
>> How strange! _Forty-million_ rings not a single bell for me. I guess that
>> 
>> Youneverknow.
> 
> Interestingly enough, when Willie Raskin, Billy Rose, and Fred Fisher wrote the
> song "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" in 1927, the actual population of
> France was pretty close to 40 million -- it wouldn't hit 50 million until 1968,
> says Wikipedia.
> 
> Audio to a 1927 version by Ted Lewis and His Band:
> http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/lewis/fiftymillionfrenchhmen.ra
> 
> Lyrics to the Sophie Tucker version:
> http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/f/fiftymillionfrenchmencantbewrong.shtml
> 
> 
I guess Pynchon must have grown up on my side of the isogloss:

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/jokespuns.htm
Gravity’s Rainbow contains so many jokes and puns that a typology might make a helpful doctoral dissertation. Here, only two of the best–known examples will serve as models: "The Disgusting English Candy Drill" (114-20) and "For De Mille, young fur–henchmen can’t be rowing" (557-63). Each is lovingly set up. Steven Weisenburger calls "De Mille" the "most elaborately staged pun in all of GR. … Note that Pynchon has fashioned an entire narrative digression about illicit trading in furs, oarsmen in boats, fur–henchmen, and De Mille—all of it in order to launch this pun" (240). 

LH

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