[Ads-l] Expression in the Caution-news: Looking for a black cat in a dark room (UNCLASSIFIED)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY FUTURES COMMAND (USA)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

> 
> A Washington Post journalist tried to contact me regarding an expression used by Dmitry Peskov who is a spokesman for the Russian
> government. Here is an excerpt from a Reuters report which presents the expression:
> 
> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/mueller-finds-no-trump-russia-conspiracy-but-some-questions-left-
> unresolved-idUSKCN1R504O
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> ". . . It’s hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat," Peskov said.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Here is a link to the pertinent QI article:
> 
> A Blind Man in a Dark Room Looking for a Black Cat That Is Not There https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/15/hidden-cat/
> 
> I was not able to respond quickly to the journalist's inquiry because I was not online and did not see inquiry for a few hours. Now, the
> Washington Post has an article on the topic, and the Quote Investigator website is mentioned. I cannot see the full article because my
> complimentary quota of Washington Post articles has been consumed.
> 
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/03/25/chinese-proverb-that-russia-cited-respond-mueller-report-does-not-
> appear-be-chinese-proverb/
> 
> The QI article noted that in 1894 a newspaper report stated that English judge Charles Bowen (Lord Bowen) attributed the "black hat ("black
> cat") expression to the Chinese sage Confucius. During my research (back in 2015) I did not find any substantive citations supporting the
> ascription to Confucius. The reporter was interested in learning more about that topic.
> 
> If a list member can find evidence of an earlier connection to Confucius please share it.
> 
> Garson
> 

Perhaps this is related to Ben Franklin's line, "At night all cats are grey", from his 1745 letter "Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress."

"I cannot see the full article because my complimentary quota of Washington Post articles has been consumed."

I have a .mil email address, and am able to receive a complimentary subscription to the Post.  But before I found out about that benefit, I had computers at work and home (more than one at home) and a smart phone.  On the computers, I had as many as four browsers (Chrome, MS Edge, Firefox, and Brave), and two browsers on the phone. Each hardware/software configuration was a different "reader", from the Post's perspective, and had its own running count of articles.  In addition, opening an article link in an Incognito/private tab would also "reset" the counter on previously-read articles (I think the Post now detects this hack, and treats it as a pop-up blocker).  
At any rate, it was difficult to use up all the articles available in one month.  
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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