My work here is done
Nick Bridge
has also used this phrase in the past.
Does anyone know where this saying came from originally? - I have searched
high and low to find out and so far have found nothing.
Cheers
GBlueOwl
<nb...@btopenworld.com> writes:
I think it's just a sort of cliched saying for comic book Superheros. It's the
kind of thing someone like The Lone Ranger or Batman would say on the last
page, when the adventure is over and they're about to mysteriously slip away.
Brian
Steve Bartman
I don't think he was the first to say it, but as I recall this was the
complete text of the suicide note penned by C.W. Post, the inventor of
Grape Nuts and founder of General Foods Corp.
Steve
--
Author of "The PaxAm Solution"
E-book version now available at:
http://riverdaleebooks.com/index.html
Andy Sawyer
on Mon, 28 Oct 2002 19:52:38 +0000 (UTC),
"Nick Bridge" <nb...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
I find it's a fairly commonly used expressionน. I'd guess it probably
originates from something like The Lone Ranger (and I think the
original form was "OUR work here is done" - but I may be wrong)
Footnotes:
น I use it pretty much everytime I finish a consulting job, when I
invite everyone out for a drink :-)
--
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter
how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first,
and is waiting for it." -- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
teepee
"Nick Bridge" <nb...@btopenworld.com> wrote
It's generally attributed to the Lone Ranger, as in "Come Tonto, our
work here is done," though no-one seems to know if or when he actually
said it. As no-one can be arsed to go through all the old episodes on TV
and Radio and in the comics to source it, it might be one of those
things never actually said by the person famous for saying it, like
"Come up and see me some time" or beam me up Scotty."
Dave E Amiott
"Nick Bridge" <nb...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:apk4i4$540$1...@helle.btinternet.com...
On historical level, it was used in the suicide note of inventor George
Eastman (of Eastman/Kodak). The full text was:
"To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"
I don't know if this was the first time it was used in any way that would
have popularized it or not. I seem to recall reading in a Vonnegut novel
where someone had plagiarized it, but I can't remember if he claimed that
Eastman plagiarized from someone else, or if one of the characters in the
book copied it from Eastman.
Since then, it's become a rather commonly used phrase, often used ironically
to lend weight to an otherwise useless or insignificant accomplishment. My
favorite instance of it used was on the Monorail episode of "The Simpsons",
when, after disaster has been narrowly averted, Leonard Nimoy says "My work
here is done." Barney asks incredulously "What do you mean? You didn't do
anything." to which Leonard replies "Didn't i?" and beams away.
DAVE
gemron
eve of the ascention. I could be wrong, its been a long time since school.
"Nick Bridge" <nb...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:apk4i4$540$1...@helle.btinternet.com...
Danachi
> On historical level, it was used in the suicide note of inventor George
> Eastman (of Eastman/Kodak). The full text was:
> "To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"
> I don't know if this was the first time it was used in any way that would
> have popularized it or not.
My sledge and anvil lie declined
My bellows too have lost their wind
My fire's extinct, my forge decayed,
And in the Dust my Vice is laid
My coals are spent, my iron's gone
My Nails are Drove, My Work is done.
Epitaph in Nettlebed churchyard on William Strange, d. 6 June 1746, and
used similarly for other blacksmiths.
...According to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
Danachi
Hunter Rose
<noemai...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>... it might be one of those things never actually said by the person
>famous for saying it, like "Come up and see me some time" or beam me
>up Scotty."
"Play it again, Sam."
"Elementary, my dear Watson."
HR
teepee
"Hunter Rose" <hun...@newsguy.com> wrote
> "Elementary, my dear Watson."
Nah, Basil Rathbone said that all the time in the original screenplays
;-) I saw it the other day on TCM
meirman
<noemai...@hotmail.com> posted:
She did say "Come up some time and see me." Saw it with my own eyes.
Meirman
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.
teepee
"meirman" <mei...@invalid.com> wrote
> >things never actually said by the person famous for saying it, like
> >"Come up and see me some time" or beam me up Scotty."
>
> She did say "Come up some time and see me." Saw it with my own eyes.
Lipreader? Who can say.
She didn't say "Come up and see me some time" though.
Hunter Rose
That's the point. Rathbone said it in the movies, but Holmes
never said it in the books.
HR
teepee
"Hunter Rose" <hun...@newsguy.com> wrote
> >Nah, Basil Rathbone said that all the time in the original
screenplays
> >;-) I saw it the other day on TCM
>
> That's the point. Rathbone said it in the movies, but Holmes
> never said it in the books.
Books? What are they?
Nick Bridge
> Epitaph in Nettlebed churchyard on William Strange, d. 6 June 1746, and
> used similarly for other blacksmiths.
>
> ...According to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
>
>
> Danachi
It appears that my work here is done.........................I never thought
the answer would be this Strange (!)
GBlueOwl
<noemai...@hotmail.com> writes:
I've heard conflicting accounts of the veracity of that quote as well. What I
suspect it might be is, Ms. West lived a long time, and was doing her "hussy"
shtick **way** longer than she really should have been. (Have you ever seen
"Sextette", featuring a late-70's Mae West (that's "the late 1970's", not her
age; West was actually 85 at the time) mixing it up with among others Keith
Moon & Alice Cooper? It's not a pretty picture.) Anyway, there is a clip from
her early days you see a lot where she says "Why Don't you come up and see
me?", perhaps originally that got corrupted into the "Come Up And See Me
Sometime" false quote, until eventually it became such a catch phrase
associated with her that she started using it, simply because everyone was
expecting her to say it.
Brian
Maggie
"GBlueOwl" wrote ...
> "teepee" writes:
> >"meirman" wrote
> >> >things never actually said by the
> >> > person famous for saying it, like
> >> >"Come up and see me some time"
> >> > or beam me up Scotty."
> >> She did say "Come up some time and
> >> see me." Saw it with my own eyes.
snips
> I've heard conflicting accounts of the
> veracity of that quote as well. What I
> suspect it might be is, Ms. West lived a
> long time, and was doing her "hussy"
> shtick **way** longer than she really
> should have been. (Have you ever seen
> "Sextette", featuring a late-70's Mae
> West (that's "the late 1970's", not her
> age; West was actually 85 at the time)
> mixing it up with among others Keith
> Moon & Alice Cooper? It's not a pretty
> picture.) Anyway, there is a clip from
> her early days you see a lot where she
> says "Why Don't you come up and see
> me?", perhaps originally that got corrupted
> into the "Come Up And See Me
> Sometime" false quote, until eventually
> it became such a catch phrase
> associated with her that she started
> using it, simply because everyone was
> expecting her to say it.
The movie was "She done him wrong." Sometimes famous quotations
are apochryphal, but sometimes the famous line is similar to
something actually said. In this case, Mae West said something
very similar:
http://www.carygrant.net/wavs/wrong.html. I kind of like it that
Cary Grant's character turned her down.
Maggie
meirman
<noemai...@hotmail.com> posted:
>
>"meirman" <mei...@invalid.com> wrote
>
>> >things never actually said by the person famous for saying it, like
>> >"Come up and see me some time" or beam me up Scotty."
>>
>> She did say "Come up some time and see me." Saw it with my own eyes.
>
>Lipreader? Who can say.
To a certain extent. I heard the words and saw her lips move in
coordination with them.
>She didn't say "Come up and see me some time" though.
I agree. That was my point. She might have said it outside a movie,
but I'm guessing she would tend to continue to say what was in the
script.
It's a little more alliterative the way it is commonly said, and I'll
bet that's why that stuck.