[Ads-l] Request 02 Now Satisfied for "Vertical expression of a horizontal wish"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great thanks to Stephen Goranson who was able to verify the requested
citation. As suggested in the original message on this thread almost
every piece of metadata provided by Google Books was inaccurate.
Stephen was kind enough to help in this case, and I was able to
extract the correct metadata. Here is the information regarding the
second oldest citation (known to me) for the popular quotation about
dance.

[ref] 1966 February 19, Thought: A Weekly Review of Politics & the
Arts, Volume 18, Number 8, Not Malice Alone by R.S., Quote Page 21,
Column 3, Printed on behalf of Siddhartha Publications Ltd. By R.L.
Chadha at Naya Hindustan Press, Delhi, India. (Verified with scans;
thanks to the Duke University Library System)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
The Vertical of the Horizontal

Q: What is ballroom dancing?
Answer: Vertical expression of a horizontal wish.
—I.S. Johar in Filmfare.
[End excerpt]

Note: The Google Books database is a remarkable monument to human
knowledge and ingenuity. It is enormously valuable, and I am not
attacking it when I discuss inaccurate metadata.

Garson

On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 6:37 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Request: I am trying to verify a version of the quip in the subject
> line attributed to I.S. Johar in a periodical called "Thought"
> published in Delhi, India. This is the second earliest citation (known
> to me) for this joke. You can help if you have access to the Duke
> University library system, the Yale University library system, or some
> research library with the target volume.
>
> Here is a shortlink and the target text:
>
> http://bit.ly/2bXvyVX
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The Vertical of the Horizontal
>
> Q: What is ballroom dancing?
> Answer: Vertical expression of a horizontal wish.
> —I.S. Johar in Filmfare.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is the metadata from Google Books which I think is incorrect.
>
> Periodical: Thought
> Year: 1964 (Probably inaccurate)
> Volume: 16 (Probably inaccurate)
> Quote Page 851 (Probably wildly inaccurate)
>
> Here is my best attempt at uncovering the correct metadata:
>
> Periodical: Thought
> Date: February 19, 1966
> Volume: 18 (Volume containing the issue with the date above)
> Quote Page 21 (approximate)
> Title visible on target page: Not Malice Alone
> Title of filler item with joke: The Vertical of the Horizontal
> Column 3
>
> Look for the large title "Not Malice Alone" in the issue with the date
> above and the quotation should be visible in the third column.
>
> The text in "Thought" pointed to "Filmfare", a publication covering
> Bollywood, but I have no specific data about the issue of "Filmfare"
> containing the joke. Hence, my first goal is to verify the citation in
> "Thought".
>
> If you could create a few page scans showing the metadata that would
> be great. I would like to see the target text, issue date, periodical
> title, and publisher.
>
> Garson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org