[Ads-l] On the Waterfront: dialect clash

[Jonathan Lighter]

Paul, I invented that line about the duck-billed platypus about a dozen
years ago and used it in my posts till I replaced it with something less
whimsical.

Am gratified to see it catching on.

Another good one is "Every mushroom cloud has a silver lining."  Send
royalty checks c/o ADS.

JL

On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 9:30 AM, paul johnson <paulzjoh at mtnhome.com> wrote:

> I find myself watching TV and looking at television
>
>
>
> On 9/21/2017 8:19 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Yeah! "Looking at television"!
>>
>> *There's* a blast from the past! (I.e., 1950s in my x-perience).
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 8:26 AM, David Daniel <dad at coarsecourses.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> What I find most interesting here is that you said you looked at the movie
>>> on YouTube. I would have said I watched it on YouTube. I do remember as a
>>> kid some folks would say they were looking at television - whereas I was
>>> watching it - but I always thought it was just a few folks being odd.
>>> Now I
>>> find there is a Lion of Language who says it too. Interesting!
>>> DAD
>>>
>>> Enviada em: quinta-feira, 21 de setembro de 2017 00:53
>>> Para: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Assunto: On the Waterfront: dialect clash
>>>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      On the Waterfront: dialect clash
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ----------------
>>> ---
>>>
>>> Surprising as it may seem, I had never seen this famous movie until last
>>> weekend, when I looked at it on YouTube. But, as does everyone else, I
>>> know
>>>
>>> =E2=80=9CI could have been a contender. I could have been somebody,
>>> instead=
>>> of what I am, which is nobody=E2=80=9D
>>>
>>> and I was waiting to hear it =E2=80=9Cin the flesh,=E2=80=9D as it were.
>>>
>>> And, when I did, I was shocked, shocked! For some reason, I=E2=80=99d
>>> alway=
>>> s assumed that the second sentence would be spoken as,
>>>
>>> A) =E2=80=9CI coulda BEEN somebody, instedda what I am, which is
>>> NObody.=E2=
>>> =80=9D
>>>
>>> But I was taken off guard, because what I heard was,
>>>
>>> B) =E2=80=9CI coulda been SOMEbody, instedda what I am, which is
>>> NObody.=E2=
>>> =80=9D
>>>
>>> The contrast between _SOMEbody_ and _NObody_ is almost Homeric in its
>>> clarity. Yet, somehow, A just feels =E2=80=9Cright" to me.
>>>
>>> --=20
>>> -Wilson
>>> -----
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
>>> come
>>> from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -Mark Twain
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Este email foi escaneado pelo Avast antivírus.
>>> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> --
> "There You Go Again Trying to Use Reason on the Planet That Produced the
> Duck-Billed Platypus"
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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