Famous Last Words
Harrison Hill
much better to go out with, "The sun is God" (Turner) rather than (for
example) "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." (John
Sedgwick), or "Bugger Bognor!" (one of the King Georges?).
This one made me laugh this morning. Whose last words were:
"You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you".
Ray O'Hara
"Harrison Hill" <harri...@gmx.com> wrote in message
news:e4b66037-a34d-4b18...@r20g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
Sedgewick said it once and got away with it, he started to say it agai...
Irwell
"Kiss me Hardy".
franzi
Athel Cornish-Bowden
<et.in.arca...@googlemail.com> said:
I thought he said "I am just going outside and may be gone some time".
Anything he said after that is unlikely to have been heard by anyone
else.
--
athel
R H Draney
Wilde had one of my favorite last statements (apart from Sedgwick's, which
cannot be improved upon)....
Perhaps the most important "famous last words" were those of Albert
Einstein...unfortunately, they were in German, a language the only person
present did not speak....r
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
franzi
--
franzi
Ray O'Hara
"Harrison Hill" <harri...@gmx.com> wrote in message
news:e4b66037-a34d-4b18...@r20g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
===========================================================================
How can we forget the most common ones?
"Hey everybody ,watch this!"
"I think it's a dud. I'll take a look."
R H Draney
And: "yes, that dress *does* make you look fat"....r
abzorba
Apparently black box flight recorders prove that the last words of
doomed pilots are, more than anything else, "Shit!!" If there is a
pathos of high technology, here it is. A close contender for top place
for "commonplace last words" is "Nurse..."
Myles (I'm off to see the Wizard....) Paulsen
J. J. Lodder
> On Jun 6, 7:16 pm, Harrison Hill <harrish...@gmx.com> wrote:
> > You have to take care that the last thing you say is memorable. So
> > much better to go out with, "The sun is God" (Turner) rather than (for
> > example) "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." (John
> > Sedgwick), or "Bugger Bognor!" (one of the King Georges?).
> >
> > This one made me laugh this morning. Whose last words were:
> >
> > "You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you".
>
> Apparently black box flight recorders prove that the last words of
> doomed pilots are, more than anything else, "Shit!!" If there is a
> pathos of high technology, here it is.
"Going down 1862, going down, going down, copied going down"
(El Al 1862, Bijlmer)
Jan
J. J. Lodder
A list I saw some time ago started with
"It's not loaded." (anon)
as the most frequent one,
Jan
Peter Moylan
> Ray O'Hara filted:
>> How can we forget the most common ones?
>> "Hey everybody ,watch this!"
>> "I think it's a dud. I'll take a look."
>
> And: "yes, that dress *does* make you look fat"....r
Even more dangerous: "No, you looked fat before you tried the dress."
--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.
Peter Moylan
Planes were a lot less reliable in 1862.
R H Draney
Instead of "anon", it should be attributed to Terry Kath....r
J. J. Lodder
How frequent is he?
Jan
R H Draney
>> >
>> >"It's not loaded." (anon)
>> >
>> >as the most frequent one,
>>
>> Instead of "anon", it should be attributed to Terry Kath....r
>
>How frequent is he?
Not as frequent as he used to be, unfortunately....r
John Dean
> You have to take care that the last thing you say is memorable. So
> much better to go out with, "The sun is God" (Turner) rather than (for
> example) "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." (John
> Sedgwick),
I thought the actual quote was "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist"
--
John Dean
Oxford
Evan Kirshenbaum
The earliest reports I see are both from 1864. One matches the
enduring story:
The bullets of the sharpshooters whistle around him. The
artillerymen involuntarily dodge. General Sedgwick smiles, and
say: "Don't duck, men. They couldn't hit an elephant that
distance." [sic] The words scarcely escape his lips, before a
well-directed ball pierced his head.
Phineas Camp Headley, _The Hero Boy_, 1864
And one has it a bit different:
About the middle of the day General John Sedgwick, who since the
march from Brandy Station had never left his command, walked out
with Lieut. Colonel McMahon, his chief of staff, to the advanced
line of breastworks occupied by his men. A little hum of leaden
bees about this place caused the soldiers in the works to dodge and
duck their heads. The General smiled at them good-naturedly; he
had a winning smile. Finally one bee hummed so near a poor auricle
that he dropped down upon his face. Gen. Sedgwick touched him with
his foot in humorous disdain: "Pooh, pooh, man! who has ever heard
of a soldier dodging a bullet! Why, they couldn't hit an elephant."
There was a laugh at this, even though the straggling balls hummed
unpleasantly around. The General was still smiling over the
banter, when Col. McMahon heard the buzz of a bullet culminate in
what seemed an explosion close beside him.
"That must have been an explosion bullet, General."
No answer. But as the face of General Sedgwick slightly turned
towards that beloved officer by his side, a curious, sad, not
despairing, but almost contented smile was upon it. Another
moment, and the form of the General fell helplessly backward. It
was caught by Col. McMahon as it fell. A ball had entered the face
just below the left eye, pierced the brain, and passed out at the
back of the head.
_Journal of the American Temperance Union and
New York Prohibitionist_, August, 1864
By 1865, I see the "at that distance" added to the second account. I
also see "you can't" and "this distance". Nobody appears to claim
that he was shot before he finished speaking, just that he didn't say
anything else before being shot.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
Still with HP Labs |People think it must be fun to be a
SF Bay Area (1982-) |super genius, but they don't
Chicago (1964-1982) |realize how hard it is to put up
|with all the idiots in the world.
evan.kir...@gmail.com | Calvin
Mike Lyle
<evan.kir...@gmail.com> wrote:
[...]
>
>And one has it a bit different:
>
> About the middle of the day General John Sedgwick, who since the
> march from Brandy Station had never left his command, walked out
> with Lieut. Colonel McMahon, his chief of staff, to the advanced
> line of breastworks occupied by his men. A little hum of leaden
> bees about this place caused the soldiers in the works to dodge and
> duck their heads. The General smiled at them good-naturedly; he
> had a winning smile. Finally one bee hummed so near a poor auricle
> that he dropped down upon his face. Gen. Sedgwick touched him with
> his foot in humorous disdain: "Pooh, pooh, man! who has ever heard
> of a soldier dodging a bullet! Why, they couldn't hit an elephant."
>
> There was a laugh at this, even though the straggling balls hummed
> unpleasantly around. The General was still smiling over the
> banter, when Col. McMahon heard the buzz of a bullet culminate in
> what seemed an explosion close beside him.
>
We're used to the idea that modern rifle bullets passing over at
effective range go "crack". But, while I've never been properly fired
upon, I can report that old lower-velocity bullets, after some
distance, _do_ actually buzz.
--
Mike.
John Dean
I've a recollection, which might well be faulty, of 'Bugles and a Tiger',
the first part of John Masters's autobiography which was largely about
service on the North West Frontier in the 1930s. He accustomed his Gurkhas
to react quickly to the possibility they were being fired on by making a
noise which simulated the effect of a rifle being fired at them and the
bullet passing over. The effect was achieving by clapping hands together and
quickly striking his chest with his closed fist. When he did this it made a
kind of "Ek -DUM" noise and the Gurkhas were expected to dive for cover.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Athel Cornish-Bowden
[ ... ]
> which simulated the effect of a rifle being fired at them and the
> bullet passing over. The effect was achieving by clapping hands
> together and quickly striking his chest with his closed fist. When he
> did this it made a kind of "Ek -DUM" noise and the Gurkhas were
> expected to dive for cover.
Is "ek dum" still in use? I used to hear it as a child (meaning
"immediately", or "right now"), but it must be half a century ago since
I last heard it. I think I was vaguely awre that it was of Indian
origin. Google finds a fair number of hits, but none of those in the
first 30 or so suggest a current phrase in English.
--
athel
Percival P. Cassidy
I heard it (and perhaps used it) when I was in India 40+ years ago. 'Ek'
= one; 'dum' = breath. Thus "do something in the space of one breath",
i.e., immediately. I never heard it in UK, Oz or the USA, but I suppose
it might have come back to UK with former Indian Army personnel.
Perce
Mike Lyle
<john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>Mike Lyle wrote:
>> On Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:01:20 -0700, Evan Kirshenbaum
>> <evan.kir...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> [...]
>>>
>>> There was a laugh at this, even though the straggling balls hummed
>>> unpleasantly around. The General was still smiling over the
>>> banter, when Col. McMahon heard the buzz of a bullet culminate in
>>> what seemed an explosion close beside him.
>>>
>> [...]
>>
>> We're used to the idea that modern rifle bullets passing over at
>> effective range go "crack". But, while I've never been properly fired
>> upon, I can report that old lower-velocity bullets, after some
>> distance, _do_ actually buzz.
>
>I've a recollection, which might well be faulty, of 'Bugles and a Tiger',
>the first part of John Masters's autobiography which was largely about
>service on the North West Frontier in the 1930s. He accustomed his Gurkhas
>to react quickly to the possibility they were being fired on by making a
>noise which simulated the effect of a rifle being fired at them and the
>bullet passing over. The effect was achieving by clapping hands together and
>quickly striking his chest with his closed fist. When he did this it made a
>kind of "Ek -DUM" noise and the Gurkhas were expected to dive for cover.
That's the old "crack-thump". The crack, of course, arrives before the
explosive "wop!"
--
Mike.
franzi
the Molesworth generation. Now we should say that ArchB of C's late
interjection into the body politick was wicked, but not in his presence
I hope.
For ultrapondians: the saintly Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
and supercilium extraordinaire, has just stirred up Westminster Village
by complaining about Her Majesty's Government's programme for national
financial recovery, else we follow the Grecian path to penury and ruin.
Which has no bearing on small arms fire, but seemed to follow, somehow.
--
franzi
Robin Bignall
Rowan Williams cracks and David Cameron thumps. Wops can hide behind
the Pope to avoid fallout.
--
Robin Bignall
(BrE)
Herts, England
J. J. Lodder
J. J. Lodder
> J. J. Lodder filted:
> >
> >R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote:
> >
> >> J. J. Lodder filted:
> >> >
> >> >A list I saw some time ago started with
> >> >
> >> >"It's not loaded." (anon)
> >> >
> >> >as the most frequent one,
> >>
> >> Instead of "anon", it should be attributed to Terry Kath....r
> >
> >How frequent is he?
>
> Not as frequent as he used to be, unfortunately....r
What, with a name like Kath?
Jan