[Ads-l] Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?

Sun May 7 15:53:59 UTC 2017

Sorry about "borders" slip. I knew better.

JL

On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 5:56 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Barry has updated his entry again. He found an excellent citation in March
> 1962.
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/
> washington_dc_is_12_square_miles/
>
> [Begin excerpt from Barry Popik's article]
> 26 March 1962, The Star-News (Chula Vista, CA), “Washingtonians: That
> Odd Tribe” by Art Hoppe, pg. 8-B, col. 4:
>
> Well, Washington is several miles square and about as tall, say, as
> the Washington Monument, give or take a little. It is surrounded on
> all four sides by reality.
> [End excerpt from Barry article]
>
> Here is another variant I found in December 1962. It refers to the
> Pentagon instead of Washington.
>
> Date: December 03, 1962
> Newspaper: The Huntsville Times
> Newspaper Location: Huntsville, Alabama
> Article: Defense in a Realistic World
> Quote Page 4, Column 1
> Database: GenealogyBank
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> THE PENTAGON, it has been said, is a building surrounded on five sides
> by reality.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 4:37 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >> On May 6, 2017, at 10:11 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> A newspaper check reveals relatively recent instances of other cities
> >> characterized in similar terms but not by Andrew Johnson.
> >>
> >> Possibly relevant unconsciously is Rod Serling's weekly claim (1960-61
> >> season) that the Twilight Zone is "a wondrous land whose borders
> >
> > “whose boundaries are that of imagination”, actually—but still plural
> >
> >> are that
> >> [sic] of imagination."
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 12:32 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> >> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Barry Popik found some great citations back to 1976 and shared his
> >>> data on his website here:
> >>>
> >>> http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/
> >>> washington_dc_is_12_square_miles/
> >>>
> >>> Following Barry's lead I've found a snippet match in Google Books that
> >>> seems to be in a 1967 book.
> >>>
> >>> Year: 1967
> >>> Title: The Department of Housing and Urban Development [by] John B.
> >>> Willmann.
> >>> Author: John B. Willmann
> >>> Publisher: New York, Praeger
> >>> Quote Page 117 (GB)
> >>> Database: Google Books Snippet match; HathiTrust shows a match also;
> >>> data may be inaccurate and should be verified with hardcopy
> >>>
> >>> [Begin extracted text]
> >>> "We have a significant, difficult-to-define job to do in
> >>> intergovernmental relations," Beckman has commented. "We try to keep
> >>> our feet on the ground by recalling from time to time (Deputy
> >>> Secretary of HUD) Bob Wood's definition of Washington as ten square
> >>> miles surrounded by reality.
> >>> [End extracted text]
> >>>
> >>> Garson
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 4:54 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>> Washington DC was originally ten miles squared - or 100 square miles.
> >>> It is smaller now, because corner was lopped off and given to Virginia.
> >>>>
> >>>> ________________________________
> >>>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> >>> Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
> >>>> Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 1:14:21 PM
> >>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >>>> Subject: Re: Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
> >>>>
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>> -----------------------
> >>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>> Poster:       Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
> >>>> Subject:      Re: Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> -------------------
> >>>>
> >>>> Although I can't date this with any precision, I know I heard the
> phrase
> >>> in=
> >>>> the nineteen seventies, probably at a libertarian gathering, probably
> >>> in H=
> >>>> awaii. But the number was 24, not 12.=20
> >>>>
> >>>> FWIW
> >>>>
> >>>> Geoff
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>    =20
> >>>> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> >>>> WSU Information Privacy Officer
> >>>> Professor, Linguistics Program
> >>>> http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
> >>>> +1 (313) 577-1259
> >>>> On Half-time: Generally not in office on Monday or Fridays but I do
> >>> read e=
> >>>> mail.
> >>>> Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send
> >>> it t=
> >>>> o anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email  looks.
> >>>> =20
> >>>>   =20
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> >>> Jonath=
> >>>> an Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>> Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 2:20 PM
> >>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >>>> Subject: Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
> >>>> =A0  =20
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>> -------------------=
> >>>> ----
> >>>> Sender:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 American Dialect Society <
> >>> ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>> Poster:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>> Subject:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Bogus Andrew Johnson quote?
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> ---------------=
> >>>> ----
> >>>>
> >>>> 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
> >>>>
> >>>> --=20
> >>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >>> truth."
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> American Dialect Society
> >>>> www.americandialect.org<http://www.americandialect.org>
> >>>> The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is dedicated to the
> study
> >>> of=
> >>>> the English language in North America, and of other languages, or
> >>> dialects=
> >>>> of other ...
> >>>>    =
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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