[Ads-l] Simile: Like bald men fighting over a comb (Thanks for help in 2018)

[Laurence Horn]

Synchronicity moment: I had never heard this bon mot (or if I had, I hadn’t remembered) in either the Borges version or the Russian original, but I’m currently listening to Ian McEwan’s latest, _Machines Like Me_, which is set in an alternative U.K./world development in which Turing is alive and well and his scientific breakthroughs led (don’t ask) to the Argentine’s junta acquiring smart weapons that destroyed the British fleet, radically altering the outcome of the (actual) Falklands War. I just came to a bitter argument between the protagonist and his girlfriend about the morality of the (now lost) war from the British perspective:

“It was a row over property, fed on each side by nationalistic stupidity. I summoned the Borges observation: two bald men fighting over a comb. She replied that a bald man might hand down a comb to his children. I was struggling to understand this when…”

LH

> On May 26, 2019, at 11:58 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Way back in July 2018 I asked for some help with a simile attributed
> to Leo Tolstoy and Jorge Luis Borges. The topic was more complex than
> I had anticipated. Now the QI website has an entry.
> 
> Like Two Bald Men Fighting Over a Comb
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/05/23/comb/
> 
> [Begin acknowledgement]
> Great thanks to researcher Nigel Rees who discussed this topic in his
> April 1992 newsletter and his recent Kindle book “The Best Guide to
> Humorous Quotations”. Rees presented citations beginning in 1938 and
> noted the ascription to Borges. Special thanks to Peter Reitan who
> located an 1888 citation. Several people kindly offered to help QI
> with the Russian text: Gerald Cohen, Jay Dillon, Ivan Van Laningham’s
> friend, and imwitty. QI is responsible for all errors.
> [End acknowledgement]
> 
> Feedback welcome,
> Garson
> 
> On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 7:44 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Perhaps a list member can provide a translation for a short passage
>> that appears in a Russian school book titled Azbuka. I'd also like to
>> obtain an accurate version of the Cyrillic text (the OCR text is poor
>> quality). The passage mentions bald men fighting over a comb. It
>> occurs on page 48 of an ABC book created by Leo Tolstoy and published
>> in 1874. Here is a link:
>> 
>> https://archive.org/stream/azbuka00tols#page/48/mode/2up
>> 
>> Here is some background: I've been asked to trace the figurative
>> language employed by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Here is a
>> citation for his remark:
>> 
>> [ref] 1983 February 9, The Miami News, Quote unquote (filler item),
>> Quote Page 1, Column 1, Miami, Florida. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>> 
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, 83, on the Falklands War: "The
>> Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb."
>> [End excerpt]
>> 
>> The ABC book was revised and republished as Novaya Azbuka. Here is a
>> citation and excerpt for an English rendition of the pertinent story
>> published in 1899:
>> 
>> [ref] 1899 Copyright, The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi: The Long
>> Exile, Master and Man, The Kreutzer Sonata, Dramas, Section: From The
>> New Speller (Novaya Azbuka), Story 12: The Book, Start Page 159, Quote
>> Page 159 and 160, The Kelmscott Society Publishers, New York. (Google
>> Books Full View) link [/ref]
>> 
>> https://books.google.com/books?id=NlVgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22bald+men%22#v=snippet&
>> 
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> XII THE BOOK
>> 
>> Two men together found a book in the street, and began to dispute as
>> to the ownership of it.
>> A third happened along and asked:--
>> "Which of you can read?"
>> "Neither of us."
>> "Then why do you want the book? Your quarrel reminds me of two bald
>> men who fought for possession of a comb, when neither had any hair on
>> his head."
>> [End excerpt]
>> 
>> H. L Mencken referred to the tale in his massive 1942 compendium:
>> 
>> [ref] 1942, A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles
>> from Ancient and Modern Sources, Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken
>> (Henry Louis Mencken), Topic: Futility, Quote Page 441, Alfred A.
>> Knopf. New York. (Verified on with hardcopy)[/ref]
>> 
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Two baldhead men are fighting over a comb.
>> RUSSIAN SAYING
>> [End excerpt]
>> 
>> Garson O'Toole
>> QuoteInvestigator.com
> 
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