[Ads-l] Groucho--really?

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Back on March 10, 2017 Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> The following quotation is widely ascribed to Groucho Marx:
>
> I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.
> I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't
> arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.

The Quote Investigator website now has an entry on this topic.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/05/happy-today/

[Begin acknowledgement]
Great thanks to Geoffrey Nunberg whose inquiry led QI to formulate
this question and perform this exploration. Thanks to mailing list
discussants: Laurence Horn, Jonathan Lighter, Peter Morris, Ben
Zimmer, George Thompson, and Mark Mandel. Jonathan Lighter located the
1869 citation. Morris identified the connection to the contestant on
“You Bet Your Life. Zimmer noted that the owner of the “Chicago
Tribune” supported spelling reform, and the spelling of “philosofy”
was deliberate.
[End acknowledgement]

Feedback welcome
Garson




> I suppose it’s not impossible that Groucho said such a thing in his sad dotage, but the tenor is awfully un-Marxian. Can anybody help to trace the actual source of the quote—or what’s really more interesting (if I’m right), its first misattribution?
>
> Geoff
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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