quotable

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> Elsewhere but not in YBQ:
>
> 1896  Ambrose Bierce in _San Francisco Examiner_ (July 26) [qtd. in Paul
> Fatout, _Ambrose Bierce_ (Norman, Okla.: U. of Okla. P., 1951) 226] :
>
> I had thought there could be only two worse writers than Stephen Crane,
> namely two Stephen Cranes.

Ambrose Bierce used the same joke template in 1906 in "The Cynic's
Word Book" later retitled "The Devil's Dictionary":

[ref] 1906, The Cynic's Word Book by Ambrose Bierce, Entry: Clarionet,
Quote Page 51, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York. (Google Books full
view) [/ref]

http://books.google.com/books?id=CboOAAAAIAAJ&q=clarionet+#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
CLARIONET, n. An instrument of torture operated by a person with
cotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than a
clarionet - two clarionets.
[End excerpt]

(Hat-tip "The Poetry of Stephen Crane by Daniel Hoffman who mentioned
both quotations.)

Garson

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