[Ads-l] folk aphorism?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

> On Nov 30, 2019, at 5:37 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Not being a quotehound (or even a quotekitty), I tracked down exactly one
> instance on the web, which appears to be from the same source (although
> it's not credited):
> https://archive.org/details/WRAL_20161117_120000_Today/start/2100/end/2160
> 
> I did find this quote, credited to Victoria Holt, which involves the same
> excluded middle but goes somewhere else with it:
> *"You should never regret anything in life. If it's good, it's wonderful.
> If it's bad, it's experience"*
> And either way you can wash it down with rye.
> LH
> 
> On Fri, Nov 29, 2019 at 10:49 AM Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> A query for the quote hounds, from S1 E11 "The Favor" (11/15/58) of the tv
>> Western _Wanted Dead or Alive_. The  show's hero, bounty hunter Josh
>> Randall (played by Steve McQueen), enters a saloon in an outlaw town and
>> asks the barman what he's serving. Barman says it's rye, Randall asks for
>> some, barman asks if he wants water with it. Randall demurs, saying:
>>  If it's bad, water won't help. If it's good, it won't need it.
...

yes, the WRAL quote is exactly the one I gave, but without the metadata. (it's screen captures from showings of Heroes & Icons channel shows on the station.)

the much wider template, with "if it's good ... if it's bad", surely has tons of instances. possibly worth collecting and analyzing.

arnold

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