Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985 July 6)

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's like the early bird getting the worm. Or not being the worm.

JL

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 10:08 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985 July 6)
>
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> Thomas L. Friedman included a fable about lions and gazelles in his
> 2005 bestseller "The World is Flat". He labeled it an "African
> proverb" and did not attempt to determine its origin.
>
> The story fragment appears in many books and in some of the big
> quotation databases, e.g., thinkexist.com and quotationsbook.com. The
> source is given as "Unknown". A couple weeks ago, a commenter at the
> Freakonomics blog inquired about the tale. Here is the earliest
> verified instance I have found. The creator might be Dan Montano of
> Montano Securities.
>
> Cite: 1985 July 6, Economist, Insert section: "The other dimension:
> Technology and the City of London: A survey", Lions and gazelles?,
> Page 37, Economist Newspaper Ltd., London. (Verified on microfilm)
>
> Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run
> faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a
> lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will
> starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a
> gazelle: when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.
>
> Stockbrokers and bankers at a recent London conference on financial
> technology* laughed appreciatively at this sally from Mr. Dan Montano
> of Montano Securities, an American equities dealer. They chuckled,
> perhaps, a touch indulgently at predictable American excess.
>
> * The Stock Exchange: Deregulation and New Technology: Oyez
> International Business Communications. London June 5th and 6th.
>
> Garson
>
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