[Ads-l] Heard: "It was impossible to get a conversation going ...

Joel Berson berson at ATT.NET
Wed Sep 23 19:58:17 UTC 2015


Interesting.  But I was quoting that as one of only many that will appear out of the woodwork* following The Yogi's demise.  And have to be tracked down and/or refuted deja vu all over again.  :-)

* Ash, of course.

Joel

      From: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 3:42 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Heard: "It was impossible to get a conversation going ...
   
Joel and all: Google Books contains a snippet match for an instance of
the saying attributed to Yogi Berra in Time magazine. Strangely, I
cannot obtain a match in the online Time magazine archive.
Nevertheless, there is a full text match in the EBSCO Academic Search
Premier.

Date: April 29, 1985
Periodical: Time
Volume 125, Issue 17
Article: People: On the Record by Richard Lacayo

[Begin text]
On the Record

Yogi Berra, 59, on a State Department dinner he attended: "You
couldn't keep a conversation going at all. Everybody was talking too
much."
[End text]

There are some later newspaper matches. The phrasing evolved. It was
mentioned by George Bush I.

LH mentioned the "too crowded, nobody goes there" quotation.

A 1989 newspaper commentator cast doubt on the "conversation"
quotation because it was "suspiciously like" the "too crowded"
quotation.

Garson


On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 1:36 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:      American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:      Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Heard:  "It was impossible to get a conversation going ...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The interviewee didn't go on to the "too crowded" saying, but the two are c=
> ertainly consistent!=C2=A0 Just another challenge to the quote verifiers --=
>  was it the same restaurant?
>
> JSB
>
>      From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
>  Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:24 PM
>  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Heard: "It was impossible to get a conversation going=
>  ...
>  =20
>> On Sep 23, 2015, at 1:10 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
>>=20
>> everybody was talking too much."
>
> Was that taking place in the restaurant that's too crowded, so nobody goes =
> there anymore?
>
> LH
>>=20
>> I predict there will be many challenges to the quote verifiers during the=
>  coming days.
>>=20
>> A Yogan.
>>=20
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