Not in YBQ

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Oct 28 18:23:34 UTC 2013


The following quote from Mussolini's aviator son used to be notorious. It
appears in GB in various forms. This appears to be the earliest and most
reliable English version:

1937 _Wisconsin State Journal (Madison)_ (Nov. 25, 1937) 24: One group of
[Abyssinian] horsemen gave me the impression of a budding rose unfolding as
the bomb fell in their midst and blew them up. It was exceptionally good
fun and they were easy to hit as we were not too high up.

The ultimate source of this UPI story was Mussolini's 1937 memoir of flying
in Abyssinia. The book seems never to have been translated into English.

JL

--
"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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