[Ads-l] Saying: Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel

[George Thompson]

I note that there was a Charles Brownson who was in Congress from 1951 to
1959.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000964
There doesn't seem to have been a Charles Bornson who was incongruous.

GAT

On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 2:24 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> Last year I found a January 1962 citation for the expression in the
> subject line. Now I am planning to create an entry for the QI website.
> Maybe someone can find a superior citation.
>
> The saying is almost obsolete.  Is there a replacement?
>
> Never argue with a newsite that buys bandwidth by the petabyte.
> Never argue with the people who control the search engine.
> Never argue with the people who operate the top AI.
>
> General Background: The saying is listed in "The Dictionary of Modern
> Proverbs" (DMP) which provides a precursor in 1931 and a solid match
> in the 1964 within the book "My Indiana" by Irving Leibowitz.
>
> The text of the 1964 cite credits the phrase to "Congressman Charles
> Brownson" according to a Google Books snippet. However, the DMP says
> "Congressman Charles Bornson". Hence, I would like to look at this
> citation in hardcopy. Maybe there are multiple editions of "My
> Indiana" or maybe "Bornson" is a typo.
>
> Barry Popik has a webpage on the topic (dated 2009), and he also lists
> the 1964 book as the first strong match. Popik gives the spelling
> "Brownson".
>
> "The Quote Verifier" has an entry and notes that: "When credit is
> given to anyone at all, it most often goes to Mark Twain sometimes to
> Ben Franklin, or Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, H. L. Mencken, Will
> Rogers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt . . ."
>
> "The Yale Book of Quotations" notes that the saying is sometimes
> called "Greener’s Law" and presents a 1978 citation.
>
>
>
> Here are the details of the 1962 citation. The saying was employed by
> Roger Branigin who became the governor of Indiana a few years later in
> 1965.
>
>
>
> [ref] 1962 January 15, The Indianapolis News, Economy, Precision Urged
> on Pressmen, Quote Page 17, Column 7 and 8, Indianapolis, Indiana.
> (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>
> [Begin except]
> Roger Branigin, Lafayette attorney, spoke last night at the annual
> dinner of the group, a highlight of the first day of the session. More
> than 600 persons heard the Hoosier humorist.
>
> Branigin, active for years in Democratic politics and an aspirant for
> the nomination for governor in 1955, said in referring to newspaper
> publishers, "I never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)
http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851

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