Nagging Question--was: Hot new Einstein quote

[Jonathan Lighter]

You can call a really smart person "a regular Einstein," but not "a regular
Mark Twain."

I mean, you could, but everybody would blink at you repeatedly with set,
unsmiling faces.

Brainiac is smarter than Einstein, even though he's evil. Einstein doubted
the reality of quantum mechanics, but Brainiac uses even more advanced
scientific concepts to create inventions that might destroy Superman.

And you can call a really smart person "a regular Brainiac."

But not "a regular Mark Twain."

JL

On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 3:30 PM, Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC,
71700 <lynne.hunter at navy.mil> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC, 71700"
>               <lynne.hunter at NAVY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Nagging Question--was: Hot new Einstein quote
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've tried to keep quiet about this, but it just keeps nagging me: How
> do we know that Albert Einstein was "even smarter than Mark Twain"? Do
> we just accept that as a given? Is it because Einstein was a genius in
> math and science and Mark Twain was _only_ a genius in literature? Would
> we automatically say that Sir Isaac Newton was smarter than Shakespeare,
> or that any person highly accomplished in the sciences is _smarter_ than
> a person accomplished in other disciplines? Does math and science trump
> other fields even among this company (as it does among the general
> population, evidently contributing to the reverence for technology and
> its consequences)? Does anybody else feel uneasy about making these
> comparisons?
>
> Lynne Hunter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 3:04 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Hot new Einstein quote
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Hot new Einstein quote
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
> This has been cybercirculating for a couple of weeks, attributed Albert
> Einstein, who was even smarter than Mark Twain:
>
> =93I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The
> world
> will only have a generation of idiots.=94
>
> I find no confirmation that Einstein ever said anything like this, and
> no
> citations before almost this minute. Note the sloppy placement of
> "only,"
> the peculiarly inarticulate use of "overlap with," the off-center use of
> "the technology."
>
> It also has the same two-declarative-sentence structure of many popular
> bogus quotes.
>
> JL
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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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."

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