"War is God's way...."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks for the pointer to Barry's site, Garson.

Somehow I can't shake the mistaken notion that he only does NYC items.

To say that "war teaches geography" is, of course, quite a bit different
from saying satirically that...well, you know.

JL




On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 3:40 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "War is God's way...."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > Possibly the hottest new misattributed quote is this:
> >
> > "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."
> >
> > It is confidently assigned to "Ambrose Bierce, in his _Devil's
> > Dictionary_."
> >
> > I immediately knew that was wrong...
>
> Thanks for pointing to a new wave of popularity for this saying.
> Comedian Jon Stewart has used it in the past according to quotation
> compiler Robert Byrne. I researched the expression in 2013 after
> receiving a request and found that the basic adage has been evolving
> since the 1800s. Barry has a valuable entry on the topic here:
>
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/god_created_war_so_that_americans_would_learn_geography/
>
> As JL notes there is no substantive evidence that Ambrose Bierce spoke
> or wrote the saying. Your interest (and others) gives this topic a
> high priority.
>
> The QI website has a new entry about another quotation that has been
> misattributed to Ambrose Bierce:
>
> Speak When You’re Angry and You’ll Make the Best Speech You’ll Ever Regret
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/17/angry-speech/
>
> Strangely, the Oxford Book of American Quotations assigned this saying
> to Bierce.
>
> Garson
>
>
> Continuing JL's message:
> > even when it was cited by Fareed
> > Zakaria, because not only have I read Ambrose Bierce's _Devil's
> > Dictionary_,  but I can also recall the popularity, around 1970, of the
> > saying "Death is God's way of telling you to slow down."   There is also
> > the much later, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."
> >
> > GB takes the "war" zinger back to 2002, quite some time after Bierce's
> > disappearance 100 years ago.
> >
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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