Quote: "There are only 90,000 people out there...."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Anderson tried it in 1971. See above.

JL


On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: "There are only 90,000 people out there...."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Warning -- adult language and political expression follow.
>
> For this quotation, one could go straight to the ass's mouth.
>
> Joel
>
> At 10/22/2013 07:41 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Thanks, G.
> >
> >In principle this an excellent example of a case where the attributed
> >source almost certainly uttered the words (more or less); but given the
> >context (a "meeting" of cabinet officials), they may have been meant to
> >characterize somebody else's opinion, been intended ironically, or even
> >said in jest.
> >
> >I'm not claiming that they were, however. Perhaps Hickel 's book clarifies
> >it.
> >
> >JL
> >
> >
> >On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 9:04 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> >adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: Quote: "There are only 90,000 people out there...."
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > The HathiTrust search engine says there is a match on page 208 for the
> > > following "There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn"
> > > within his edition:
> > >
> > > Year: 1971
> > > Title: Who owns America?
> > > Author: Walter J. Hickel.
> > > Publisher: Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall
> > > Physical Description: xii, 328 p. 22 cm.
> > > Original Classification Number: E855 .H63
> > >
> > > I have not seen the above book. A book reviewer in the Los Angeles
> > > Times gave the following context for the quotation attributed to
> > > Kissinger.
> > >
> > > Newspaper: Los Angeles Times
> > > Article date: September 16, 1971
> > > Article title: Book by Hickel Explains How Nixon Fired Him: Tells
> > > Differences Over SST and Rebuffs When He Criticized Invasion of
> > > Cambodia
> > > Article page: A4
> > > Article author: Don Oberdorfer
> > > Newspaper location: Los Angeles, California
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt ; check for OCR errors]
> > > Presidential Asst. Henry A. Kissinger objected to Hickel's demand for
> > > "full compensation" with "full consultation" for any land taken by the
> > > government from the Pacific islands people of Micronesia, where the
> > > United States is in charge under a United Nations trusteeship. Hickel
> > > quotes Kissinger as saying at a State Department meeting, "There are
> > > only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?"
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > Garson
> > >
> > > On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 7:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > > Subject:      Quote: "There are only 90,000 people out there...."
> > > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >
> > > > Among the Henry Kissinger quotes in YBQ, one does *not* find the
> > > following,
> > > > which is, as they say, "all over the Internet."
> > > >
> > > > As best I can tell, it appeared for the first time in former Interior
> > > > Secretary Wally Hickel's "Who Owns America?" (Prentice-Hall, 1971),
> but
> > > GB
> > > > won't cough up the page.
> > > >
> > > > Kissinger seems to have been discussing, in 1969, Marshall Islanders
> who
> > > > had been exposed to radiation from U.S. nuclear tests in the 1950s,
> but
> > > not
> > > > having seen the context I can't swear to it.
> > > >
> > > > "There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?"
> > > >
> > > > According to Jack Anderson's column of Oct. 22, 1971, "Kissinger
> tells us
> > > > he can't remember making the statement that Hickel attributes to
> him. It
> > > is
> > > > contrary, he says, to his actual views."
> > > >
> > > > Anderson that the statement was nonetheless typical of both
> Democratic
> > > and
> > > > Republican attitudes toward Micronesia.
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > > truth."
> > > >
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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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