[Ads-l] "War is months of boredom..."
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Dec 26 20:09:42 UTC 2020
This is now a well-known proverb, usually in the form "months of
boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror."
London Times (Nov. 4, 1914), Sec. II, p. 5:
“THE BAPTISM OF FIRE — CAVALRY SUBALTERN’S VIVID EXPERIENCE…Some one
described this war as ‘Months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.’”
Daily Advocate (Stamford, Conn.) (Dec. 9, 1914), p. 5:
“LONDON….The following…account of the war was written by Lieut. H. O. Anne,
of the Royal Field Artillery: … ‘One of our officers, after the South
African War [1899–1902] described war as a period of intense discomfort
punctuated by moments of abject terror.’”
JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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