quote

[Jonathan Lighter]

I vividly recall my ninth-grade science teacher telling us, "Half of
everything we think we know, is wrong. The question is which half."

In a phrase yet to be coined, it freaked me out.

Cf.the later "Everything You Know is Wrong."

JL

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 11:49 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      quote
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> from  the Economist of 5/30/12, a letter to the editor:
>
> Business quotes
>
> SIR – You began an article with the old saw “that half of all advertising
> budgets are wasted—the trouble is, no one knows which half” (“Change of
> track”, June 9th). The remark is frequently attributed by Britons to Lord
> Leverhulme, founder of Lever Brothers, and by Americans to John Wanamaker,
> who opened Philadelphia’s first department store. Though references to such
> a saying date from at least 1919, no authoritative reference has been found
> linking either man to it. This leads one to observe that at least half the
> attributions are false, the trouble is no one knows which half.
>
> Professor Michael Mainelli
> Executive chairman
> Z/Yen Group
> London
>
> .....
>
> for the quote mavens.  i have no particular interest in tracking down
> quotations, but thought this might be of interest to those who do.  quite
> possibly it's been explored already.
>
> arnold
>
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-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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