"Look to the left..." (was "Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles")

[George Thompson]

On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 9:43 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
 wrote:

>
> I have a very vague memory of this line being used in a late 1940s-early
> 1950s comic movie.  Out of the fog, I have a vision of Donald O'Connor.  It
> was in the context of the freshman class being welcomed to college.



A bit of research suggests that this movie was probably "High Time", 1960,
starring Bing Crosby, with Donald O'Connor nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, my wife tells me that her freshman class was handed this line at
Westminster College (a Presbyterian school in western Pennsylvania), also
in 1960.
Or, should I say, "ironically, also in 1960"?

All of this takes us back to olden times, when it was still possible for a
student to flunk out of college.

GAT

On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 9:43 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

>
> I have a very vague memory of this line being used in a late 1940s-early
> 1950s comic movie.  Out of the fog, I have a vision of Donald O'Connor.  It
> was in the context of the freshman class being welcomed to college.
>
> GAT
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 7:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> >"Look to the left of you.  Look to the right of you.  One of the three
>> of you will be gone before the year is out."
>>
>> I don't have a source at hand, but phrases to this effect were also
>> (allegedly) in use during WWII in a more dire and immediate context.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985
>> July 6)
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >        In the old days at Harvard Law School, incoming students were
>> told
>> >
>> >        In recent decades, few students flunk out, so some other way had
>> to be found to intimidate the newcomers.  Dean James Vorenberg was
>> notorious for telling them the story about the bear on the first day.  I
>> remember hearing it in 1981, which may have been the first time he told it
>> (ISTR that the student newspaper the next year had a story about it and the
>> fact that he had told it for two years straight).  I had heard the story
>> before when I first heard it from Vorenberg in convocation.
>> >
>> >        As given on page 82 of Quote It Completely,
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=kjwVASsTUm0C, the story goes as follows:
>> >
>> >        <<Two hikers looked out of their tent one morning and saw a
>> large, hungry, and athletic-looking bear waiting for them.  After some
>> discussion they decided they might as well make a run for it.  One of them
>> sat down and started putting on his running shoes.  The other said, "Don't
>> you know there's no way you can outrun that bear?"  To this the first
>> replied, "I don't have to outrun the bear--I only have to outrun you.">>
>> >
>> >
>> > John Baker
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
>> > Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 6:23 PM
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Subject: Re: Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985 July 6)
>> >
>> > Me too. But probably only within the past year or so.
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> >> Subject:      Re: Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985
>> July 6)
>> >>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> On Nov 20, 2011, at 2:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Even more proverbial than before.
>> >>>
>> >>> On NPR, the top Jeopardy winner of all time explains that, in order to
>> >>> win, "You don't have to outrun the bear. You just have to outrun the
>> >>> other guy."
>> >>>
>> >>> JL
>> >>>
>> >> I've encountered this not as a proverb but as a punchline of a joke:
>>  "I don't have to run faster than the bear--I just have to run faster than
>> you."
>> >>
>> >> LH
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > 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."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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