[Ads-l] Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri May 5 18:20:25 UTC 2017


The New Yorker quotes AJ that Washington, DC, is "twelve square miles
bordered by reality."

Despite the usual zillion raw Google hits, my Spidey-sense says fat chance.
And GB reveals nothing before 2008.

I doubt that any 19th C. person would have been likely to say that any
physical location was "bordered by reality."

If Johnson had said it, we should heard about it long before 2008.

Its form reminds me, somehow, of a recent, well-known, witticism that I
cannot bring to mind.

Has Barry or Garson looked into this?

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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