MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Quotes

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Mar 5 20:18:46 UTC 2013


On Mar 5, 2013, at 1:03 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> Excellent pointers on both quotes. They sounded familiar, but I was too
> lazy to look.
>
> Indeed, Burke was a GM and a special adviser to the team. I thought he
> used to coach as well, but I might be wrong on that. Of course, if he
> mostly revolved around the business end, it would explain his penchant
> for recycling quotables--they can likely be found in "motivational"
> literature.
>
> The table/menu line has been a staple of lecture circuit for years. I
> would peg it to the late 1980s, if pushed, but finding evidence may be
> difficult.


There's an interesting echo there of "If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem" (Eldridge Cleaver; late 60s maybe?).  And more tangentially the ones with bugs and windshield, or the various times when you get the bear and vice versa.  A big family.  But this one and Cleaver's have a bit more overlap, starting with the syntax.

LH

> The lampost line is much older, so the 1937 RD looks good for
> it (we may never know where/they/ got it).
>
> VS-)
>
> On 3/5/2013 10:01 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>>> "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
>> Charlie, Fred and Wolfgang Mieder found an excellent cite for this
>> saying and recorded it in the DMP.
>>
>> [ref] 2012, The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, Compiled by Charles
>> Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. Shapiro, Quote Page 248, Yale
>> University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper) [/ref]
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>>
>> If you are not at the table, you may be on the menu.
>>
>> 1993 "Lebanon— At the Table or on the Menu?" Middle East Insight 10,
>> no. 6 (Sep.– Oct.) 5 (commentary on a pending Syria- Israel accord).
>>
>> 2002 Salt Lake [City UT] Tribune 30 Jul. (quoting the education
>> activist Pat Rusk): “I am often reminded of the adage, 'If you are not
>> at the table, then you could be on the menu.' If I am not getting out
>> and having my voice heard by those who make decisions, I am not doing
>> my job."
>>
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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