Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time to write a short one"?
Larry Krakauer
Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
to write a short one"?
I think it was either Emerson or Thoreau, but I'm not
sure, and in any case, I can't remember which.
--
Larry Krakauer (lar...@kronos.com)
Ralph M Jones
Brian J Goggin wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Nov 1997 13:59:44 -0500, Larry Krakauer <lar...@kronos.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
> >to write a short one"?
> >
> >I think it was either Emerson or Thoreau, but I'm not
> >sure, and in any case, I can't remember which.
>
> If we are to believe the *Oxford Dictionary of Quotations*, it was
> Blaise Pascal in *Lettres Provinciales* (1657) no 16:
>
I've heard a very similar statement attributed to Winston Churchill.
--
Don't write it in concrete if there's an erasable medium available.
- rmj
John Nurick
>Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
>to write a short one"?
>I think it was either Emerson or Thoreau, but I'm not
>sure, and in any case, I can't remember which.
ODQ has Pascal writing this: "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue
que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte",
which can be translated as "I only made this longer because I
have not had the leisure to make it shorter".
There's a philosopher in Kai Lung who devotes his latter years
to condensing his life's work into one volume... then one
page... one sentence... one word.
John
I dislocated my e-mail address, and the doctor says it will be
six months before I can see a specialist.
Dan Harper
In article <347337...@kronos.com>, lar...@kronos.com says...
>
>Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
>to write a short one"?
>
>I think it was either Emerson or Thoreau, but I'm not
>sure, and in any case, I can't remember which.
Blaise Pascal.
Dan Harper
Brian J Goggin
>Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
>to write a short one"?
>
>I think it was either Emerson or Thoreau, but I'm not
>sure, and in any case, I can't remember which.
If we are to believe the *Oxford Dictionary of Quotations*, it was
Blaise Pascal in *Lettres Provinciales* (1657) no 16:
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le
loisir de la faire plus courte."
Translated in ODQ as
"I have made this [letter] longer than usual, only because I have not
had the time to make it shorter."
bjg [posted and mailed]
Donna Richoux
Ralph M Jones <rmj...@hal-pc.org> wrote:
> > If we are to believe the *Oxford Dictionary of Quotations*, it was
> > Blaise Pascal in *Lettres Provinciales* (1657) no 16:
> >
>
> I've heard a very similar statement attributed to Winston Churchill.
Quite likely you have. I think I've heard every clever saying of the
last few centuries attributed to one of four people: Winston Churchill,
George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, or Oscar Wilde.
Best wishes --- Donna Richoux
Martin A. Mazur
In article <347524b1...@news.indigo.ie>, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J Goggin) wrote:
>amongst the great English-speaking nations: one American, one Briton
>and two Irishmen; the rest amongst the also-rans.
>
Yeah, but doesn't it just stick in your craw that a Frenchman said it first?
--
Martin A. Mazur | 3rd Century thoughts on MTV:
| "There is no public entertainment which
Representing only himself. | does not inflict spiritual damage"
To email me, remove obtuse | - Tertullian
reference to spam. |
Brian J Goggin
On 20 Nov 1997 09:22:47 GMT, tr...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:
>Ralph M Jones <rmj...@hal-pc.org> wrote:
>
>> > If we are to believe the *Oxford Dictionary of Quotations*, it was
>> > Blaise Pascal in *Lettres Provinciales* (1657) no 16:
>> >
>>
>> I've heard a very similar statement attributed to Winston Churchill.
>
>Quite likely you have. I think I've heard every clever saying of the
>last few centuries attributed to one of four people: Winston Churchill,
>George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, or Oscar Wilde.
That seems to accord proper recognition to the distribution of wit
amongst the great English-speaking nations: one American, one Briton
and two Irishmen; the rest amongst the also-rans.
bjg
Jack Lynch
: Quite likely you have. I think I've heard every clever saying of the
: last few centuries attributed to one of four people: Winston Churchill,
: George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, or Oscar Wilde.
Don't forget Abraham Lincoln and Samuel Johnson, both of whom have dozens
of spurious quotations attributed to them. It seems that anyone who's
come up with more than three memorable zingers becomes a candidate for
adoption of every orphaned saying.
--
But these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.
John Nurick
On Thu, 20 Nov 1997 18:16:38 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J
Goggin) wrote:
>The score so far:
>Ireland 2
>USA 1.5
>UK 0.5.
This can't be right. Wilde and Shaw were British subjects who
were born in the UK and lived most of their lives there.
lanza
I think that quote has also been attributed to Seneca. Reminds me of "I
don't know if it's art but I know what I like," which has been
attributed to just about everybody except Van Gogh.
--
********************************************
"Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand."
--LUCAS JACKSON
********************************************
Paraic O'Donnell
On 20 Nov 97 17:11:55 -0800, "Mark Barton"
<mba...@icrr.no.u-tokyo.spam.ac.jp> wrote:
>If we're still talking about the "I'm sorry for it being so long; I didn't
>have time to make it shorter" quote, then not at all. Since French seems to
>take 30% or thereabouts more space to convey comparable ideas on average...
I'd be very grateful if you could post a cite for that assertion. A
debate on this very subject raged -- well, pouted a bit, anyway -- on
alt.folklore.urban a couple of weeks ago, and no definitive conclusion
was arrived at.
Some posters, myself included, agreed that a cross-language survey to
establish comparative verbosity would be extremely difficult to
implement, given the sheer volume of data that would need to be
surveyed in order to ensure that all forms and registers of discourse
were taken into account.
Paraic O'Donnell
________________
cne...@vaqvtb.vr
(Rot13 to reply)
________________
Thomas Schenk
Having read the above, I agree with the difficulty of comparing the
French/English level of verbosity, given the possible confounding
factors. Nonetheless, for my own satisfaction, I downloaded a random
selection, available in both languages and did a simple word count on
Microsoft *Word*. The selection was Emile Zola's *Germinal*, Chapter I,
Part I. The original French version contained 3,402 words; the English
translation (Havelock Ellis) showed 3,495 words.
The English version contained actually more words, to wit, ninety-three,
or 2.7%, than Zola's original text. This experiment does not take into
consideration the relative lengths of equivalent words (ie total letter
count, verbosity or floridity of the translator, possible omissions by
the translator, etc) but is presented as a random evaluation of the
"...French seems to take 30% or thereabouts more space to convey
comparable ideas on average..." hypothesis.
Best regards,
Tom
--
*******************
Dr Thomas M Schenk
Laguna Beach, California
Albert Marshall
Brian J Goggin <b...@wordwrights.ie> wrote
>On Fri, 21 Nov 1997 05:47:08 GMT, j.nu...@ialday.ipexpay.omcay (John
>Nurick) wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 20 Nov 1997 18:16:38 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J
>>Goggin) wrote:
>>
>>>The score so far:
>>
>>>Ireland 2
>>>USA 1.5
>>>UK 0.5.
>>
>>This can't be right. Wilde and Shaw were British subjects who
>>were born in the UK and lived most of their lives there.
>
>
>At the time, you may recall, Wilde and Shaw had no choice about
>whether to be British subjects.
>
Even then we didn't own the *whole* world -- they could have gone to
Outer Mongolia, for example.
--
Albert Marshall
Executive French
Language Training for Businesses in Kent
01634 400902
Brian J Goggin
On 20 Nov 1997 22:54:25 GMT, "Padraig Breathnach" <padr...@iol.ie>
wrote:
[...]
>Perhaps they all said it -- remember the story about Oscar Wilde expressing
>a wish that he had uttered a particular aphorism, and the response "You
>will, Oscar, you will".
>
>Or was that somebody else too?
Richard Ellman says that it was James McNeill Whistler's response to
Oscar's "How I wish I had said that."
What a wonderful, if unearned, air of learning one gains from the
possession of the ODQ.
bjg
Brian J Goggin
On Fri, 21 Nov 1997 05:47:08 GMT, j.nu...@ialday.ipexpay.omcay (John
Nurick) wrote:
>On Thu, 20 Nov 1997 18:16:38 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J
>Goggin) wrote:
>
>>The score so far:
>
>>Ireland 2
>>USA 1.5
>>UK 0.5.
>
>This can't be right. Wilde and Shaw were British subjects who
>were born in the UK and lived most of their lives there.
Ireland, the land of Saints and Scholars, has a long tradition of
sending missionaries, lay and religious, to civilise the heathen.
Shaw, indeed, wrote "He [the Briton] is a barbarian, and thinks that
the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature."^ The
civilising effect of the Irish missionaries has, of course, improved
the condition, and especially the erudition, of the Briton.
At the time, you may recall, Wilde and Shaw had no choice about
whether to be British subjects.
bjg
^The second part might be relevant to your discussion, in another
thread, of the American worldview.
Padraig Breathnach
Paraic O'Donnell wrote:
> On 20 Nov 97 17:11:55 -0800, "Mark Barton" wrote:
>
> >If we're still talking about the "I'm sorry for it being so long; I
didn't
> >have time to make it shorter" quote, then not at all. Since French seems
to
> >take 30% or thereabouts more space to convey comparable ideas on
average...
>
> I'd be very grateful if you could post a cite for that assertion. A
> debate on this very subject raged -- well, pouted a bit, anyway -- on
> alt.folklore.urban a couple of weeks ago, and no definitive conclusion
> was arrived at.
>
> Some posters, myself included, agreed that a cross-language survey to
> establish comparative verbosity would be extremely difficult to
> implement, given the sheer volume of data that would need to be
> surveyed in order to ensure that all forms and registers of discourse
> were taken into account.
I don't see that French is necessarily more prolix. If something is
expressed in English by a first-language speaker of English, then it is
likely to be put in terms for which the English language is well-suited. At
a more profound level, the contents of the expression are likely to have
been formed in modes of thought which are conditioned by the English
language. If that is then translated into French, one is likely to discover
that certain efficiencies of expression in English -- which, almost
necessarily, will be present -- are not available in French. Thus, the
rendering into French might be lengthier.
It seems to work similarly in the other direction. Something composed in
French by a first-language speaker of French can often become noticeably
longer in translation.
I hesitate to put a numerical value on such growth. It seems to depend
quite considerably on the type of material. Formal writing, in general,
seems to me to extend less in translation than does literary or colloquial
language. I cannot imagine any passage -- other than very brief ones which
are not properly representative -- adding 30% in translation.
-----------
I interrrupted writing this to conduct two minor researches -- for fun, and
not offered as firm evidence.
First, I did a quick comparison of two versions which I possess of "Madame
Bovary", one in French, one an English translation. My impression was that
the English translation was no shorter, and was probably longer.
Second, I recently acquired a most entertaining piece of software -- Power
Translator. I got it to translate some of my own (so succinct) prose into
French. The apparent length increased by about 20%. A cursory examination
of the French suggested to me, with a moderate command of the language,
that a reasonable editing job (editing for language quality, not for
brevity) should shorten it a good deal -- perhaps to an apparent increase
of 10%.
-----------
Orthography also comes into the question. It appears to me that French
words take more space!
The effects of orthography should not be under-estimated. In my lifetime,
there have been two major changes in the orthography of the Irish language.
The first was a major drive to eliminate redundancies. An extreme example
is the revision of "Lughbhaidhe" to "Lughaidh", and then to "Lu". Texts
seemed to shrink.
The second was the dropping of the Gaelic alphabet and the adoption of the
Roman one (I'm giving my age away here). Where previously aspiration had
been signified with a dot over a letter, the new convention was to insert a
"h" after the letter. There are many aspirates in Irish -- often two in a
single word. The addition of large numbers of "h"s expanded texts again.
------------
I do not speak Spanish but, as I understand it, the word "manana" (sorry
about missing accents) can convey meaning for which the English word
"tomorrow" is an inadequate translation. I would like to assure members of
Spanish-speaking communities that the example is frivolous, but the point
about translation is earnestly made.
Beir Bua.
PB
Brian J Goggin
On Fri, 21 Nov 1997 20:01:51 +0000, Albert Marshall
<alb...@execfrog.demon.co.uk> wrote:
[...]
>>>This can't be right. Wilde and Shaw were British subjects who
>>>were born in the UK and lived most of their lives there.
>>
><Snip>
>>
>>At the time, you may recall, Wilde and Shaw had no choice about
>>whether to be British subjects.
>>
>Even then we didn't own the *whole* world -- they could have gone to
>Outer Mongolia, for example.
Er .... John is right: they were born in the UK, without having any
choice in the matter. As for their working lives, they evidently felt
that the Britons were in greater need of the civilising influence of
the Irish than were the Outer Mongolians.
And who is to say they were wrong? Their efforts were, happily,
crowned with success. You can't, of course, expect to lift yourselves
to Irish standards within a generation or two, but you do seem to be
on the right road.
bjg
Bob Cunningham
On Fri, 21 Nov 1997 13:01:55 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J Goggin)
said:
[ . . . ]
>What a wonderful, if unearned, air of learning one gains from the
>possession of the ODQ.
I think Bartlett's 16th Edition is a little better. Bartlett's has 1404
pages and ODQ has only 1061. Also, the pages in Bartlett's are a little
larger. Anyway, I've more than once found things in Bartlett's that I
couldn't find in ODQ. I'm sure the converse could also happen; I don't
remember it ever happening, though.
On the other hand, a Latin scholar might prefer ODQ because it gives the
Latin versions of *all* of the quotations from Roman authors.
Bartlett's gives only some of them in Latin.
It's nice to have both, if only to compare the different translations of
the same quotation. For example, ODQ has:
Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes
chronic in their sick minds.
while Bartlett's has:
An inveterate and incurable itch for writing besets many, and
grows old in their sick hearts.
Both say the quotation is from Juvenal, 'Satires VII, l. 51'.
The original Latin isn't given in Bartlett's, but ODQ says it's:
Tenet insanabile multos
Scribendi cacoethes et aegro in corde senescit.
I've never had any Latin, but after looking up each word in a
Latin-English dictionary I think the Bartlett's translation takes more
liberties with the original than does the ODQ translation.
--
Bob Cunningham, Southern California, USofA
To send e-mail, please remove the well-known
initialism for 'extraterrestrial'.
Please do not send me copies of Usenet postings.
lanza
Come to think of it, I now think it may have been Lord Chestefield to
his son.
lanza
> There's a philosopher in Kai Lung who devotes his latter years
> to condensing his life's work into one volume... then one
> page... one sentence... one word.
So what's the word? Blah?
Gwen Lenker
lanza <la...@mail.ncku.edu.tw> wrote in article
<34762A...@mail.ncku.edu.tw>...
> > There's a philosopher in Kai Lung who devotes his latter years
> > to condensing his life's work into one volume... then one
> > page... one sentence... one word.
>
> So what's the word? Blah?
The accumulated wisdom of a lifetime boiled down to one word?
"Uh-oh."
Lee Lester
The list you supplied gives these attributions. However, Blaise Pascal
predated them all by a couple of centuries or so. 'nuff said?
http://www.gsia.cmu.edu/mfichman/ob1/node3.html : Thoreau
http://world.std.com/~lo/96.04/0481.html : Mark Twain (via "Maverick")
http://theochem.uwaterloo.ca/~jyseto/Quotes/OtherQuotes.html : G.B. Shaw
http://mailmunch.law.cornell.edu/listservs/CYBERIA/0612.html : Abe
Lincoln
http://www.datek-my.com/sb961219.htm : Mark Twain
http://www.bnj.com/rateyourdd2.html : Oscar Wilde
http://www.newzletter.com/JW003G03.html : Rudyard Kipling
N.Mitchum
Larry Krakauer wrote:
------
> Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
> to write a short one"?
>
> I think it was either Emerson or Thoreau, but I'm not
> sure, and in any case, I can't remember which.
First time I came across it, the line was attributed to Voltaire,
and I believe it was quoted as something like, "I would have
written a shorter letter if I'd had more time." My faith in the
attribution has wavered considerably since then.
One of my favorite anecdotes concerns Emerson and Thoreau. The
latter was briefly jailed when he refused to pay taxes in protest
against certain of the federal government's activities which he
considered immoral. Emerson, visiting his good friend, sadly
shook his head and said, "Henry, what are you doing in there?"
Thoreau looked through the bars and asked "Ralph, what are you
doing out there?"
--- NM
Replies copied to e-mail are appreciated. (Mailers: drop PANTS.)
Bob Cunningham
On 22 Nov 1997 04:13:54 GMT, "Gwen Lenker" <gale...@worldnet.att.net>
said:
[ . . . ]
>The accumulated wisdom of a lifetime boiled down to one word?
>"Uh-oh."
How about 'sigh'?
--
Bob Cunningham, Southern California, USofA
For e-mail, remove the initialism for 'extraterrestrial'.
E-mail is always welcome, but copies of postings aren't
necessary, because service is good these days.
Robert M. Wilson
In article <34748fe9....@news.dial.pipex.com>,
j.nu...@ialday.ipexpay.omcay (John Nurick) wrote:
>On Thu, 20 Nov 1997 18:16:38 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J
>Goggin) wrote:
>
>>The score so far:
>
>>Ireland 2
>>USA 1.5
>>UK 0.5.
>
>were born in the UK and lived most of their lives there.
Shaw was born in Dublin and went to London when he was about twenty. His
formal education ceased at fourteen.
Wilde was also born in Dublin. I don't know when he went to England but he
studied at Oxford as a young man.
All Irish were British subjects up to 1937 with the creation of the Republic
of Ireland.
lanza
> Emerson, visiting his good friend, sadly
> shook his head and said, "Henry, what are you doing in there?"
> Thoreau looked through the bars and asked "Ralph, what are you
> doing out there?"
You omitted their subsequent dialogue. Emerson remarked to Henry:
"Hank, you've made a thoreau fool of yourself." Henry David retorted:
"The difference, Ralphie Boy, is that, in the morning, when I'm
released, I'll no longer be a fool, while you. . . . "
--
lanza
> > Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time
> > to write a short one"?
I believe that Pascal was cited previously, and this seems to be
correct, according to my DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS (London and Glasgow:
Collins, 1988), p. 199:
"I have only made this letter longer because I have not had time to make
it shorter." From the Lettres Provincales (incidentally, one of the
funniest books I've ever read).
Lee Lester
Look at EU or Canadian labels and you will usually find French and
German wording longer than English.
lee lester
John Nurick
On 22 Nov 1997 04:13:54 GMT, "Gwen Lenker"
>lanza <la...@mail.ncku.edu.tw> wrote in article
><34762A...@mail.ncku.edu.tw>...
>> > There's a philosopher in Kai Lung who devotes his latter years
>> > to condensing his life's work into one volume... then one
>> > page... one sentence... one word.
>> So what's the word? Blah?
>The accumulated wisdom of a lifetime boiled down to one word?
>"Uh-oh."
Perfect!
Bramah doesn't tell us, of course. If I remember correctly
(local library no help) he had the philosopher die on the point
of passing on this wisdom, so if "Uh-oh" wasn't the first choice
it was very likely the last-minute revision.
Simon Hosie
Ralph M Jones:
> I've heard a very similar statement attributed to Winston Churchill.
I thought that everything was eventually attributed to Churchill.
Certainly my fortune cookie database does that.
--
user_id = "gumboot", site = "clear", site_type = "net", country = "nz";
sprintf(email, "%s@%s.%s.%s", user_id, site, site_type, country);
(if that doesn't work for some reason, try gum...@airdmhor.gen.nz)
lanza
> I thought that everything was eventually attributed to Churchill.
lADY TO SIR WINSTON: Sir, if you were my husband, I'd put poison in
your tea."
SIR WINSTON: Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.
Complete Speech to Graduating students: "Never, never, never, never,
never quit!"
lanza
Mimi Kahn wrote:
>
> On 22 Nov 1997 04:13:54 GMT, "Gwen Lenker" <gale...@worldnet.att.net>
> wrote:
>
> >lanza <la...@mail.ncku.edu.tw> wrote in article
> ><34762A...@mail.ncku.edu.tw>...
> >> > There's a philosopher in Kai Lung who devotes his latter years
> >> > to condensing his life's work into one volume... then one
> >> > page... one sentence... one word.
> >
> >
> >"Uh-oh."
not a word but an interjection! Now blah's a WORD! Anyway, it reminds
me of a great line spoken by Al Pacino, as the Colonel, in Scent of a
Woman when the young boy asks him, "Are you really a Colonel?" and Al
responds: "Uh-oh, it's moron time."
--
RON BANISTER
ad...@elafnt.org (Bob Cunningham) wrote:-
BC>On 22 Nov 1997 04:13:54 GMT, "Gwen Lenker" <gale...@worldnet.att.net>
>said:
BC>[ . . . ]
BC>>The accumulated wisdom of a lifetime boiled down to one word?
BC>>"Uh-oh."
BC>How about 'sigh'?
Beatle Lennon, whose lifetime was admittedly short, liked
"Gerroff". ;)
---
* SLMR 2.1 *
Orne Batmagoo
In article <3486297f...@news.mindspring.com>,
njk...@mindspringerspaniel.com (Mimi Kahn) writes:
>
> Then there was the man who saw the secret of the universe revealed in
> a dream and managed to write it down. What he read upon awakening
> was:
>
> Hogamus, higamus, men are polygamous;
> Higamus, hogamus, women monogamous.
Henry James (or maybe brother William) wrote this one, while inhaling
nitrous oxide (laughing gas). At the time, as Mimi says, he believed
it to be the secret of the universe. When the effects of the gas wore
off, he said "Huh?"
By the way, I think Mimi got the "gamousity" of the sexes reversed.
Perhaps there are gender-based differences in how we remember things.
That is, I'm not certain, but I recall the verse as:
Higamus, hogamus, man is monogamous.
Hogamus, higamus, woman polygamous.
Not sure where to look this one up, but I _am_ sure it came from one of
the James boys. (And I don't mean Frank and Jesse!) It may have been
documented in _The_Varieties_of_Psychedelic_Experience_.
I'm also sure that James was "doing whippits" rather than merely dreaming.
--
Orne Batmagoo
I've condensed my life's work into a basement full of cardboard boxes filled
with napkins on which are scribbled all the secrets of the universe. I need
a Boswell, I guess, to play secretary to my Johnson. Er, no, I mean...
Robert M. Wilson
In article <65eskh$m94$1...@news.doit.wisc.edu>,
r...@darkstar.uwsa.edu.NOSPAM (Orne Batmagoo) wrote:
>In article <3486297f...@news.mindspring.com>,
> njk...@mindspringerspaniel.com (Mimi Kahn) writes:
>>
>> Then there was the man who saw the secret of the universe revealed in
>> a dream and managed to write it down. What he read upon awakening
>> was:
>>
>> Hogamus, higamus, men are polygamous;
>> Higamus, hogamus, women monogamous.
>
>Henry James (or maybe brother William) wrote this one, while inhaling
>nitrous oxide (laughing gas). At the time, as Mimi says, he believed
>it to be the secret of the universe. When the effects of the gas wore
>off, he said "Huh?"
It is (from memory of a book read about forty years ago) from William James'
*Varieties of Religious Experience* 1905?
James had been experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs and believed that he
had discovered "the secret of life." But when he awoke he could not remember
it. Finally he wrote it down during an hallucination. When he awoke next
morning, he discovered:
Higamus, hogumus; woman's monogamous.
Hogamus, higamus; man is polygomous.
Anyone with access to the book could correct the above.
Brian J Goggin
[posted and mailed]
On Sun, 23 Nov 1997 07:49:20 GMT, j.nu...@ialday.ipexpay.omcay (John
Nurick) wrote:
>On 22 Nov 1997 04:13:54 GMT, "Gwen Lenker"
><gale...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>>lanza <la...@mail.ncku.edu.tw> wrote in article
>><34762A...@mail.ncku.edu.tw>...
>
>>> > There's a philosopher in Kai Lung who devotes his latter years
>>> > to condensing his life's work into one volume... then one
>>> > page... one sentence... one word.
>
>>> So what's the word? Blah?
>
>>The accumulated wisdom of a lifetime boiled down to one word?
>
>>"Uh-oh."
>
>Perfect!
>
>Bramah doesn't tell us, of course. If I remember correctly
>(local library no help) he had the philosopher die on the point
>of passing on this wisdom, so if "Uh-oh" wasn't the first choice
>it was very likely the last-minute revision.
In Chapter V of *The Wallet of Kai-Lung*, entitled "The Confession of
Kai-Lung --- related by himself at Wu-Whei when other matter failed
him", Kai-Lung tells the story of his own failure to "take a degree at
the public literary competitions". He then determined to devote
himself to a literary career: to "imagine and write out stories and
similar devices for printed leaves and books".
His father, approving his resolution, gave him a sentence that "would
be of incomparable value to one engaged in a literary career, and
should in fact, without any particular qualifications, insure an
honourable competency."
The sentence "had been composed by a remote ancestor, who had spent
his entire life in crystallizing all his knowledge and experience into
a few written lines, which as a result became correspondingly
precious. ... When it was complete, the person who had contrived this
ingenious masterpiece, discovering by means of omens that he still had
ten years to live, devoted each remaining year to the task of reducing
the sentence by one word without in any way altering its meaning."
The chapter ends with Kai-Lung's account of his efforts to forge proof
that the great writer Lo Kuan Chang had plagiarised the work of
earlier writers. He thus attributed to earlier sources such extracts
from Lo Kuan Chang's work as these:
- the Emperor Tsing on the battle-field of Shih-ho: 'A sedan-chair! a
sedan-chair! This person will unhesitatingly exchange his entire and
well-regulated Empire for such an article"
- 'O nobly intentioned but nevertheless exceedingly morose Tng-shin,
the object before you is your distinguished and evilly-disposed-of
father's honourably-inspired demon'
- 'The person who becomes amused at matters resulting from
double-edged knives has assuredly never felt the effect of a
well-directed blow himself'
- 'Friends, Chinamen, labourers who are employed in agricultural
pursuits, entrust to this person your acute and well-educated ears'.
Chapter 1, by the way, includes the story "The Transmutation of Ling",
wherein a magician dies, clutching a bottle that "contained the
perfection of his entire life's study".
bjg
john....@ie.fujitsu.com
> On Thu, 20 Nov 1997 18:16:38 GMT, b...@wordwrights.ie (Brian J
> Goggin) wrote:
>
> >The score so far:
>
> >Ireland 2
> >USA 1.5
> >UK 0.5.
>
> This can't be right. Wilde and Shaw were British subjects who
> were born in the UK and lived most of their lives there.
>
>
> I dislocated my e-mail address, and the doctor says it will be
> six months before I can see a specialist.
Wilde and Shaw were both born in what was then the UK but they were Irish: Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College; Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street, Dublin.
jami...@gmail.com
Richard Heathfield
write a short one"?]
On 27/10/16 19:38, jami...@gmail.com wrote:
> Mark twain
Mark Twain was born in 1835. Almost two centuries earlier, we find: "Je
n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de
la faire plus courte." (Blaise Pascal, 1657.)
--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within
snide...@gmail.com
> [Subject: Re: Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time to
> write a short one"?]
>
> On 27/10/16 19:38, jami...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Mark twain
>
> Mark Twain was born in 1835. Almost two centuries earlier, we find: "Je
> n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de
> la faire plus courte." (Blaise Pascal, 1657.)
>
Evidently the searcher only read the subject line, and not the previous posts.
/dps
snide...@gmail.com
Chapter V of *The Wallet of Kai-Lung*.
/dps "remember sedan chairs?"
Richard Heathfield
(Eternal September). Had they done so, I would obviously not have added
my reply. My apologies for the noise, and my congratulations to you for
having such a comprehensive newsfeed!
snide...@gmail.com
> On 27/10/16 20:33, snide...@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 12:09:17 PM UTC-7, Richard Heathfield wrote:
> >> [Subject: Re: Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time to
> >> write a short one"?]
> >>
> >> On 27/10/16 19:38, jami...@gmail.com wrote:
> >>> Mark twain
> >>
> >> Mark Twain was born in 1835. Almost two centuries earlier, we find: "Je
> >> n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de
> >> la faire plus courte." (Blaise Pascal, 1657.)
> >>
> >
> > Brian J Goggin, Lee Lester, and lanza agreed with you.
> > Evidently the searcher only read the subject line, and not the previous posts.
>
> Alas, the articles from those people don't appear on my newsfeed
> (Eternal September). Had they done so, I would obviously not have added
> my reply. My apologies for the noise, and my congratulations to you for
> having such a comprehensive newsfeed!
>
Perhaps the one on Nick S's disk is more comprehensive, aside from being
2 or 3 years out of date. And I wanted more sailing stories.
/dps "somehow there's only one entry in jami...'s References header"
Peter T. Daniels
> [Subject: Re: Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time to
> write a short one"?]
>
> On 27/10/16 19:38, jami...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Mark twain
>
> Mark Twain was born in 1835. Almost two centuries earlier, we find: "Je
> n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de
> la faire plus courte." (Blaise Pascal, 1657.)
Mark Brader
> Evidently the searcher only read the subject line, and not the previous posts.
but it has no "Re:" in the subject line. It seems to me that this is
a new variation on late responses in the last few weeks. Am I right?
--
Mark Brader The World Wide Web:
Toronto bringing you style over substance since 1993.
m...@vex.net -- Steve Summit
Peter Young
> Mark twain
Apparently not, maybe.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
Take your choice!
Peter.
--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist) (AUE Ir)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk
Charles Bishop
> On 27/10/16 20:33, snide...@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 12:09:17 PM UTC-7, Richard Heathfield
> > wrote:
> >> [Subject: Re: Who wrote "Excuse the long letter, I didn't have time to
> >> write a short one"?]
> >>
> >> On 27/10/16 19:38, jami...@gmail.com wrote:
> >>> Mark twain
> >>
> >> Mark Twain was born in 1835. Almost two centuries earlier, we find: "Je
> >> n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de
> >> la faire plus courte." (Blaise Pascal, 1657.)
> >>
> >
> > Brian J Goggin, Lee Lester, and lanza agreed with you.
> > Evidently the searcher only read the subject line, and not the previous
> > posts.
>
> Alas, the articles from those people don't appear on my newsfeed
> (Eternal September). Had they done so, I would obviously not have added
> my reply. My apologies for the noise, and my congratulations to you for
> having such a comprehensive newsfeed!
--
cahrles
Peter Moylan
>> Brian J Goggin, Lee Lester, and lanza agreed with you.
>> Evidently the searcher only read the subject line, and not the previous posts.
>
> And once again the late responder's posting not only quotes no text,
> but it has no "Re:" in the subject line. It seems to me that this is
> a new variation on late responses in the last few weeks. Am I right?
back, and I think the answer turned out to be that Google Groups has a
special interface for mobile phones, one that discourages quoting and
omits the "Re:". If it's trying to economise on screen space then it
probably also hides the date of the original message.
It would be interesting to know whether it also hides the other messages
in the thread. Quite a few of these drive-by posters give answers that
were already provided in the original thread; or, as in this case,
contradict those answers without any explanation as to why they disagree
with the other contributors.
We need people like Brian Goggin back, to provide some balance against
the high proportion of drivel that has infested the newsgroup.
--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia