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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks to Bill for his help gaining access to the article.

Congratulations to Adam Taylor of the Washington Post. He did an
excellent job carefully examining the back cat (black hat) saying and
sharing his findings with the public. The commentary from academics
knowledgeable about Confucius was particularly welcome.

Thanks to discussants Dan, LH, and Bill. The gray cay quotation is entertaining.
Garson


On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 2:37 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Mar 25, 2019, at 1:29 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > 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]
>
> And especially since in the dark all cats are gray, including the ones that aren’t there.
> >
> > 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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