paranoid

[Jonathan Lighter]

As a dedicated student of _Catch-22_ (the first-rate book, not the
second-rate picture), I confirm that the line does not appear in it.

Among the sort of novelty buttons of ca1969 that included "Dracula Sucks," I
distinctly recall "The Paranoids Are After Me!"

It was a few years later that I heard, unattributed, "Even paranoids have
real enemies."

JL



On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 6:38 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: paranoid
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The word "paranoid" is not in the book Catch-22, at least according to the
> search function on Amazon.com.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> victor steinbok
> Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2011 10:47 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: paranoid
>
> I am having a moment of doubt--the line is clearly in the movie version of
> Catch-22 (1970):
>
> Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.
>
>
> But is it in the book (1961, but written over about 8 years)? Because, if
> it
> isn't...
>
> Well, just search around--it's credited to everyone from ACLU to Abbie
> Hoffman. One credit I did not find: Joseph Heller.
>
> Oh, and BTW, Rahm Emanuel stole a similar line from Kissinger: Even a
> paranoid (or "paranoids") can have enemies (or "has real enemies").
>
> VS-)
>
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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