The “Desiderata” Story
There was a poem , of unknown origin, found in a Baltimore church in 1692. It was revived by a Lawyer, who lived in Terre Haute, IN. He liked to read it his friends, and his lips were moving. The attorney, Max Ehrmann copyrighted this poem in 1927. Another persistent rumor has it that the manuscript was in an ambulance Mr. Ehrmann was following. How the accident victim came to possess this document is a mystery.
Mr. Ehrmann,(the poet laureate of Terre Haute, ) wrote in his diary “I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift — a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods”. The poem is “Desiderata,” and is a favorite of gift shops the world over.
In 1956, Rev. Frederick Kates became the rector of Old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, MD. He had found a copy of “Desiderata”, without the copyright notice. He printed a handout for his congregation on church stationary. At the top of the page was the notation “Old St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore A.C. 1692”. As the sixties devolved, the poem became famous.
“Desiderata” was the text of a recording made by Les Crane, who found the poem on a poster. He thought the text was in the public domain, when in fact it is copyrighted. Mr. Crane was taken to court, and forced to pay the owners of the copyright. The matter has been in court on other occasions. It seems that Mr. Ehrmann used “Desiderata” in a Christmas greeting, without citing the copyright. Later,during World War II, Ehrmann allowed a friend – Army psychiatrist Dr. Merrill Moore – to hand out more than 1,000 copies of the poem to his soldier-patients, without the copyright.
PG admits to confusion on this issue. Don’t copyrights expire, get renewed, and then expire again? If a work was written in 1927, doesn’t it go into the public domain 83 years later. The wikipedia article about copyrights is long and confusing. Remember, we are dealing with a legal concept as it relates to a poem written by a lawyer.
A site called fleurdelis says the matter depends on your point of view and place of residence. ( Shcredo says flatly that “Desiderata” is public domain.) (Robinsweb tells of being forced to remove “Desiderata” from her site because of a complaint by the copyright owner.) If you want to be inspired, click on the videos embedded in this post.
In 1972, the National Lampoon produced a new translation, Deteriorata.
Desiderata belongs to a category that might be called commodity wisdom. It sounds good, and may inspire some people. To others, the D-poem is a lot of nonsense. PG typed the words “Desiderata skeptic” into google, and saw what came up.
There is a forum, The skeptics guide to the universe. On March 17, 2012, mwilley contributed “Skeptical Desiderata.” It begins “Go skeptically amidst the lies and the guile, and take comfort in whatever rationality there may be. As far as possible, without being an asshole, question established orthodoxies and fatuous argument.” As a fortune cookie said, “Few things are as bad as enthusiastic ignorance.” A few spots down is the text of “Deteriorata.”
There is the possibility that desiderata is plural. Maybe the famous text should be desideratum.
One result is a copy resistant google book, Beyond “Justification”: Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation By William P. Alston “Part II Ultimate Questions: The Epistemology of Epistemology” i. The Demand for a Final Settlement ii. The Inevitability of a Regress iii. Attempts to Avoid the Regress: Doxastic Practices iv. Epistemic Circularity v. The Pervasiveness of Epistemic Circularity.”
One of the results was profiles, that mention desiderata, at OK Cupid.
kahmiel 25 / F / Bi / Single Denton, Texas
This is my life philosophy:Max Ehrmann Desiderata Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
Ebonheart 24 / M / Straight / Seeing Someone Birmingham, Alabama
My real name is Desi, as in the poem Desiderata as it were, i try to live according to the guidelines this poem sets because i believe that it is the best way to live peacefully.
Anhkah 45 / F / Straight / Single Murphy, North Carolina
There is no life guide better than the Desiderata .
GLilyDances 46 / F / Bi / Single Virginia Beach, Virginia
“- Friedrich Nietzsche My Woo Jack from cresal :Desiderata
filosof 32 / F / Straight / Married Krasnoyarsk, Russia
“— Sparkling gems of wisdom that I live by, from Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann .
SC_PrinceOfTide 53 / M / Straight / Single Columbia, South Carolina
And if you’re that special someone who also knows the words to DESIDERATA, we’re Kindred Spirits!
B_cubed 27 / M / Gay / Seeing Someone Chicago, Illinois
Like poetry but dont read it much; Desiderata and A certain slant of light = the favs.
nightbirdflying 28 / F / Straight / Single Tucson, Arizona
I believe in the poem Desiderata even if I can’t abide by all it’s suggestions.
Andrinara 25 / F / Bi / Seeing Someone Chicago, Illinois
I like getting tattoos and have many, the most recent being a few stanzas of Desiderata down my ribs.
oriondreamdance 58 / M / Straight / Available Ladson, South Carolina
If you believe that Heinlein was a visionary, Desiderata is your bible, or Richard Bach’s Illusions spoke to your soul.
Part one of this feature is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These are Union Soldiers from the War Between the States. They were not concerned with Epistemic Circularity. This was written like Ursula K. Le Guin.
Send This To All Of Your Friends
The following is chain email. The message has been altered slightly. This reply was not sent out in less than an hour, so the beneficial effects may not kick in on schedule. It is hoped that the voluminous traffic at Chamblee54 will make up the difference. The pictures are from a variety of sources. Many are from an appearance by Sarah Palin in Atlanta. The speech was a rally for Karen Handel, who was running for Governor. Mrs. Handel became notorious later as a bungling executive at the Susan G. Komen Foundation. For the Buckhead rally, Mrs. Handel wore a pink suit.
AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH
May there always be work for your hands to do;
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you..
OK, this is what you have to do…Send this to all of your friends! But – you HAVE to send this within 1 hour From when you open it! Now…………..Make A wish!!!!! I hope you made your wish! Now then, if you send to: 1 person — your wish will be granted in 1 year ~ 3 people — 6 months ~ 5 people — 3 months ~ 6 people — 1 month ~ 7 people — 2 weeks ~ 8 people — 1 week ~ 9 people — 5 days ~ 10 people — 3 days ~ 12 people – — 2 days ~ 15 people — 1 day ~ 20 people — 3 hours ~ If you delete this after you read it . You will have 1 year of bad luck! But .. If you send it to 2 of your friends you will automatically have 3 years of good luck!!! )
I had to forward this, my mom swears it works. The day after she sent it, they got an offer on their land on the Swannee river, they haven’t even seen that land since 1987. It came out of the blue. So you know that I’m going to try it. Love Kim ~ Not sure if this had anything to do with it but it was shortly after I sent this out – I got a call to say our bond was approved – against all odds. ~ I don’t know if it works but I won a new fridge full of various cool drinks from Beyer and Beyer last week. ~ I do not know if it works, but I won a microwave yesterday Seems like it Hey !! ~ I hope this works my son could use a really good job!!!!!!! ~ Good luck to everyone! And may all your dreams come true!! ~ This may sound nuts, but my husband got this the other day and sent it off. About 10 minutes later a really good financial windfall happened for his son Sean who he had sent it too as well. One of the people he sent it to was responsible for the windfall. ~ “Do or Do not. There is no try.” Yoda ~ “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.” Albert Camus
No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG – http://www.avg.com/ Version: 9.0.930 / Virus Database: 2441.1.1/5296 – Release Date: 09/28/12 04:22:00 This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. multipart/mixed. This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. multipart/alternative. This was written like James Joyce.
You Must Give Up
There was a tasteful graphic on facebook, 10 things you must give up to move forward. PG wanted the list in text form. Mr. Google was consulted, and a text source of the list appeared.
The hosting site had an ad for Romney-Ryan. “Obamacare is wrong and I’ll repeal it” – Mitt Romney
A CLEAR CHOICE CONTRIBUTE Paid for by Romney Victory, Inc.
The google query got 90 million results. There are a lot of people who want to tell you how to live your life. This particular motivator then gives us, as his number one disposable. “1. Letting the opinions
of others control your life.”
The top result at Google was by the apparent author of the list, Marc Chernoff. He is a partner at a blog, Marc and Angel Hack Life. The motto is Practical Tips for Productive Living. There is a menu at the bottom of the page: Ads by Google, Positive Quotes, Quotes on Happiness, Life Quotes, Positive Thinking.
Marc and Angel are purveyors of commodity wisdom. The last five posts are 12 Things You Should Know for Sure, 30 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life, 9 Habits of Super Positive People, 10 Things Winners Do Differently, and 10 Ways to Break Your Own Heart. That is a total of 71 items. If you apply all of them today, you get a volume discount.
The home page today has the Romney Ryan ad below the first post. Other ads include “The November 14 day kindness challenge,” Trans Union credit monitoring, and a small business seminar. The most productive/conductive ad is a link to a facebook page, Charmin Vote 2012. Consumers are invited to cast a vote for either Charmin Ultra Soft, or Charmin Ultra Strong.
For those who came to Chamblee 54 looking for advice on how to run your life, So that nobody thinks their time has been wasted, here are 10 Things You Must Give Up to Move Forward
1. Letting the opinions of others control your life.
2. The shame of past failures.
3. Being indecisive about what you want.
4. Procrastinating on the goals that matter to you.
5. Choosing to do nothing.
6. Your need to be right.
7. Running from problems that should be fixed.
8. Making excuses rather than decisions.
9. Overlooking the positive points in your life.
10. Not appreciating the present moment.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Two Thirds Of A Joke
1. The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.
He acquired his size from eating too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. The teacher confiscated a rubber band pistol was confiscated from a student in an algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12. A baseball cap and a beret were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. The beret said to the cap:
‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine.
21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.’
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says ‘Dam!’
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft.
Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’ The other says ‘Are you sure?’
The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal?
He wanted to transcend dental medication.
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.
27. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This repost was written like Chuck Palahniuk.
Kiss Me
PG recently got two emails from a friend. One of them is serious. It is up to the reader to tell which is which. This was written like Rudyard Kipling.
Why keep Aspirin by your bedside? It’s about Heart Attacks – There are other symptoms of a heart attack, besides the pain on the left arm. One must also be aware of an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however, these symptoms may also occur less frequently. Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack.
Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 A.M. and noon. Having one during the night, when the heart should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up. However, if it occurs, the chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep.
If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water. Afterwards: Call 911. Phone a neighbor or a family member who lives very close by. – Say “heart attack!” Say that you have taken 2 Aspirins. Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival and …DO NOT LIE DOWN!
If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night. The reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour “half-life”; therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the Aspirin would be strongest in your system. Aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest for years, (when it gets old, it smells like vinegar). Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve instantly on the tongue. They work much faster than the tablets.
A Cardiologist has stated that if each person after receiving this e-mail, sends it to 10 people, probably one life could be saved! I have already shared this information. What about you? Do forward this message. It may save lives!
A guy is 72 years old and loves to fish. He was sitting in his boat the other day when he heard a voice say, ‘Pick me up.’ He looked around and couldn’t see anyone. He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again, ‘Pick me up.’
He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.The man said, ‘Are you talking to me?
The frog said, ‘Yes, I’m talking to you. Pick me up, then kiss me and I’ll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. I’ll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous, because I will be your bride!’
The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up, and placed it in his shirt pocket.
The frog said, “Didn’t you hear what I said? I said, “Kiss me, and I will be your beautiful bride.”‘
He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said, ‘Nah. At my age, I’d rather have a talking frog.’
Rules Of Four
This is a double repost . These two features have been repeated before , with text added. Whether the text adds value is a judgement question. For today’s entertainment, the added value text will be included. Historic pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. This was written like David Foster Wallace
Two features, posted two times each, is four. These two features are about rules for living, that come in groups of four. There is a symmetry about four. Four Beatles, Four seasons, for corners, four elements. This number is a homonym partner with for and fore. White people say fo wer, black people say fo.
When PG was a kid, his grandmother lived in a side apartment, in a house on Virginia Avenue. The owner of the house was Mrs. Stuckey. (PG never learned her “real” name, and assumed that checks were made out to Mrs.) There was a framed piece of paper in Mrs. Stuckey’s hall. The top said “The Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do” , and featured the logo of the Rotary Club. The four rules were simple, on the surface. Is it the TRUTH?//Is it FAIR to all Concerned?//Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?//Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
The four way test was written by Herbert J. Taylor. In 1932, Mr.Taylor took over the bankrupt Club Aluminum Company of Chicago. Trying to revive the company during the depression, Mr. Taylor wrote a code of ethics, that would be the basis for the company’s actions.
Many said that the four way test was not practical for the business world. The balancing of integrity and ambition can be daunting. It was said that “This emphasis on truth, fairness and consideration provide a moral diet so rich that it gives some people “ethical indigestion.”
PG maintains that fair is a baseball hit between first and third base. Sometimes, the umpire makes the wrong call. In the “real world”, the different points of view in a dispute make rendering a fair judgment a difficult task, if not an impossible one.
There is a story about the revival of Club Aluminum. ” One day, the sales manager announced a possible order for 50,000 utensils. Sales were low and the company was still struggling at the bankruptcy level. The senior managers certainly needed and wanted that sale, but there was a hitch. The sales manager learned that the potential customer intended to sell the products at cut-rate prices. “That wouldn’t be fair to our regular dealers who have been advertising and promoting our product consistently,” he said. In one of the toughest decisions the company made that year, the order was turned down. There was no question this transaction would have made a mockery out of The Four-Way Test the company professed to live by.”
How did the sales manager learn of the intentions of this buyer? Was he tipped off by one of the “regular customers” who feared competition? Was this “regular customer” lying? Many inspirational stories leave out crucial details.
As it turns out, Club Aluminum did sell enough product to emerge from bankruptcy. “By 1937, Club Aluminum’s indebtedness was paid off and during the next 15 years, the firm distributed more than $1 million in dividends to its stockholders. Its net worth climbed to more than $2 million.”
Club Aluminum cookware was cast, not spun. It is heavy, and is a prized collectors item today. As for the Club Aluminum company ” Standard International Corporation bought it in 1968. Regalware made and marketed Club Aluminum for a while, but went out of business in the mid-1980s. The brand name was eventually obtained by the Mirro Company.”
This is a repost. Philosophy and rules for living is always a crowd pleaser. Whether or not you practice what you preach is beside the point.
There is a story above. A company, facing bankruptcy, turned down a huge order because of concerns about how the product would be resold. Today, this seems quaint. Today, the moral thing to do would be to take the order, keep your factory busy, and not worry how it was going to be resold. While some pretend that moral rules are unchanging, the truth is that they do change with the times.
This reminds PG of a story from his days as a blueprinter. With ammonia developed prints, every print is fed by hand, and you have the option to adjust the speed of the machine. Slower prints mean less background, which to some is a higher quality print. (This is not an issue with digital printing. Some change is indeed progress.)
The company PG worked for was affiliated with a small, family run company in a neighboring city. This company was run by an old fashioned lady, who insisted on adjusting every print to get the perfect background. This was different from the company PG worked for, which ran large jobs for the big city market. To his customers, quality meant getting an acceptable print, DELIVERED ON TIME. Who had the higher standards? Maybe that is a question for the customer to judge.
These thoughts are for you to use. They were articulated by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz. They are called the Four Agreements. . HT to activecitizen54..
PG does not claim to live up to these ideals. Number two is especially tough for him. The main thing is to try, and to always do your best. This is not about what you believe or think, it is about what you do.
agreement 1–Be impeccable with your word – Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
agreement 2–Don’t take anything personally – Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
agreement 3–Don’t make assumptions – Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
agreement 4–Always do your best – Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
This Green Thing
There is an amusing monolog on the innertubes these days. It is a grumpy old person talking about the old days. It starts out like this:
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
Plastic bags ARE bad for the earth. There is a spot in the Pacific Ocean where non degradable junk collects. This saltwater trashpile is the size of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and, like the ACC, gets bigger all the time. It dribbles and shoots year round.
In a perfect world, people might bring their own bags, and those bags would be made of environmentally friendly materials. However, a lot of us are not that organized. A lot of those tote bags are made of materials that degrade the environment. And then there is the paper versus plastic dilemma. Yes, paper is a renewable resource, and is buddies with that part of the environment that is not downwind from a paper mill. The problem is that paper bags weigh a lot more than plastic bags. When you ship these bags from the factory to the store, you use more fuel to ship the paper bags.
Getting back to the battle of the generations, PG finds himself caught in the middle. He remembers black and white television, jim crow, and cigarettes smoked everywhere. There are a few things things the oldtimers seem to forget. It wasn’t that long ago that PG was a kid, and hearing people say they feel sorry for your generation. Now, PG is the old fogie, and can see the points made by both the old lady and the young clerk.
The first earth day was in 1970. The concern over the ecology was something that hippies did when the war in Vietnam started to wind down. A lot of these people … i.e. the ones who cared about the earth … are the old generation that the young clerk is fussing about.
“Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.”
In the fifties, gas powered lawn mowers were everywhere. Electric mixers were in a lot of kitchens. Just how old is this lady?
Black and white TV was not all that great. There were frequent breaks in the transmission due to technical problems. The sets had something called fine tuning. If that knob went a cat’s hair too far to the right, the picture tube would have a bunch of bars, followed by the picture, followed by a bunch of bars, followed by the picture. This kinetic parade would roll down the viewing area, until someone walked over to the tv and moved the fine tuning a cat’s hair to the left.
Meanwhile, someone in the living room was either lighting, smoking, or putting out a cigarette. Back in those days, people smoked whenever and whereever they wanted to. The idea of second hand smoke had not been invented. Even if it had, few would have cared. There were reports about lung cancer, but they were laughed off.
The lady in the photograph is white. This probably helps her memories of how good the old days were. In the pre civil rights era, people that were not white did not have it so good.
Here again, PG finds himself in the middle. In the early sixties, PG was horrified by the anti-black racism in Georgia. If you said that maybe negroes are not all that bad, you would hear about it for the next hour. These days, if PG does not vigorously condemn the racial attitudes of certain people, he considered racist. Sometimes you just can’t win. Bullies will be bullies.
It is easy to make fun of political correctness. Sometimes people get carried away, and forget to look in the mirror. The thing is, all people are G-d’s children. Sometimes, what you thoughtlessly say can hurt someone. Which generation gets the credit, and the debit, for caring about their neighbors?
In a sense, the fifties were the test tube generation. Nuclear bombs were tested in the desert, with little regard for the radiation. Powerful drugs were coming on the market, and doctors were eager to prescribe them. The side effects became known later, after the damage was done. The gas guzzling cars spewed poison into the air, and no one cared. Maybe it was because the drivers were bombed. Drunk driving was not seen as a problem.
To be fair, many of the old ladies points are valid. The same is true of the young clerk. One day, if she is lucky, the young clerk will be the old lady.
The I Word
During a recent facebook deterioration, on social issues, someone posted a 410 word statement. PG noted the promiscuous use of first person singular. A study ensued.
1- I, or verb contractions using I, occurs 27 times in this statement.
2- I was used in the first seven sentences. The eighth sentence did not have I, but did contain me.
3- The tenth sentence does not have I, but does contain my. These are the only two sentences without I.
4- The last sentence has I five times. The first two have I three times each. Six sentences use I two times.
5- There are 410 words in this statement. There are 15 sentences. Six percent of these words are I.
6- I is the shortest word in the English language. It is also possibly the least important.
Many people use the word I too often. The use of this word implies that the listener is interested in what the speaker thinks or does. When someone says I, the lips are usually moving. I is the central letter in both lie and believe. (As another FBF noted, I statements can be useful.)
This does not take away the controversy over what word, in the language, is the shortest. A British facility, the Daily Mail, ran a story,The shortest word in English? Depends on how you measure it
Q. We all know that the longest word in the English language is Floccinaucinihili-pilification,(Spell check suggestion:Oversimplification) meaning inconsiderable or trifling. But what is the shortest word in the English language?
A. This is a controversy that has divided the English-speaking community for more than a century. One faction, headed by Dr Robert Beauchamp from the Oxford English Dictionary, believes that the shortest word in the English language is ‘a’, while another faction, headed by Professor Melanie Kurtz from Chicago University, contends that it is ‘I’.
In his most recent book on the subject, Further Arguments In Favour Of A (OUP, £19.99), Dr Beauchamp claims that, though ‘I’ is arguably the thinnest word in the English language, ‘a’ is the shortest, in the sense that it is not as high.
Professor Kurtz, on the other hand, has argued in a number of pamphlets that, if one unravels the various loops and curls that form a single ‘a’, and stretch it into a single horizontal or perpendicular line, then the letter in question is undoubtedly longer than ‘I’.
Meanwhile, dissident scholars continue to argue the case for ‘o’ and for small ‘i’, though in broader academic circles the first is generally dismissed as not really a word and the second is felt to be questionable: they maintain that the gap between the little dot and the main body of the word/letter is a constituent part of the whole and cannot be discounted when it comes to the full measurement.
One of the comments is highly repeatable. “is it true…..the shortest sentence is ..I am. and the longest sentence…I do.?” – Tommy Atkins Blighty, 02/10/2009 18:45
In the digital age, capital letters are used less and less. If the lower case i is used as a first person singular, then it is both the shortest and the skinniest. The dot on the lower case i is known as the tittle. It is not known what the tittle thinks of the jot, or whether they believe each other.
For those not suffering platitude fatigue, here are the 21 Most Important Words in the English Language. The most important word: We ~ The two most important words: Thank You ~ The three most important words: All is forgiven ~ The four most important words: What is your opinion ~ The Five most important words: You did a good job ~ The six most important words: I want to understand you better ~ The least important word: I.”
A site called vocabula has a feature on the worst words in english. There are two phrases using I.
I mean Meaningless formula (a verbal tic, if you will) used habitually by many to begin nearly every sentence, especially those that are not intended to clarify anything preceding them. I need you to … A completely unacceptable replacement for “please.”
Since we cannot say, for certain, that I is the shortest word in the language, the uncertainty about the longest word should not be surprising. The longest word in German would be a short story by itself. According to Los Angeles Trade-Technical College “The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters ispneumonoultra-microscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.” (Spell check suggestion:ultramontane-microscopicsilicovolcanoconioses)
Part two of this feature is a repost. It is about a popular contender for the longest word, which is known here as The S Word. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
There is a feature today on NPR discussing ” “What’s The Longest Word In The English Language?”. The old crowd pleaser antidisestablishmentarianism was dismissed as “Just a bundle of suffixes and prefixes piled up into a little attention-grabbing hummock.” It also has 28 letters, which won’t even get it into the playoffs.
When it comes to big words, there is nothing like science. In 1964, a book called “Chemical Abstracts” published a 1,185 letter word, referring to a protein found in the tobacco mosaic virus. It starts with glu and ends with sine. This word is 8.44 tweets long.
Words like glu…sine are not used often, which brings us to the obvious winner, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It is the theme song for a dance routine in a movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke , and a few dozen animated characters.
According to the urban dictionary, Miss Andrews was not fond of Rob Petrie. “It’s reported that Ms. Andrews replied, “Fuck you! I hate you!! You’re a ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidouchebag’!!!! And get away from my door!! Why don’t you go eat “A Spoonful of Feces “!!!” (This problem might have been caused by SupercalifragilisticexpiHalitosis )
At 34 letters, the s word is the longest english word that most of us have heard of. While it probably was made up by over-imaginative songwriters, it is defined by a reputed dictionary. It translates as superkalifragilistikexpialigetisch (German), supercalifragilistichespiralidoso(Italian) and supercalifragilisticoespialidoso (Spanish). The French are too cool to use it.
A website called Straightdope has a highly entertaining feature called Is “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” a real word referring to Irish hookers? . “Our research first took us to a lawsuit that was filed after the movie came out by Life Music, Inc., against Wonderland Music, the publisher of the Mary Poppins song. It was a copyright infringement suit brought by Barney Young and Gloria Parker, who had written a song in 1949 entitled “Supercalafajaistickespeealadojus” and shown it to Disney in 1951. They asked for twelve million dollars in damages. The suit was decided in the Shermans’ favor because, among other reasons, affidavits were produced from two New Yorkers, Stanley Eichenbaum and Clara Colclaster, who claimed that “variants of the word were known to and used by them many years prior to 1949.”
The decision makes for fairly humorous reading. Apparently the judge got tired of writing out the whole word, so every time it had to be mentioned it was replaced by the phrase “the word” as if it were some loathsome artifact that had to be held at arm’s length. “
There is another story that has the s word appearing in a humor magazine at Syracuse University. An archivist named Mary O’Brien says that rumor surfaces every ten years or so, and is not true. Another old husbands tale has children in summer camps taught a song super-cadja-flawjalistic-espealedojus. This cannot be confirmed or denied.
As for the tale about Irish entrepreneurs , there is a story in Maxim magazine. It says “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, the word supposedly coined by Mary Poppins to make kids sound “precocious,” was actually invented by turn-of-the-century Scottish coal miners. It was used to request “the works” from prostitutes by men too shy to recite specific acts.” The link supplied by StraightDope does not work.
Infinite Monkey Theorem
This web page at http://www.awkwardboners.com has been reported as an attack page and has been blocked based on your security preferences. ~ I met the Italians at the Townhouse for drinks. Then I took the subway in the wrong direction and found myself in Brooklyn. A bit fuzzy from the Bombay Sapphire Maritinis, I asked the conductor who leaned through the car window of the 7 train, “Does this go to 42nd where I can connect to the #1?” He said yes and I entered with skepticism. In the course of the trip I saw the Chrysler Building more than once. I never take the #7. It was quite fantastic, and the faces were all new. The people of the #7. I got home and took off my shoes: turquoise boaters. I stepped out of them next to the other pairs I have worn today for biking, an interview, gym. I was filled with a desire for a life wherein one wears only one type of shoe all day long and every day. One pair of shoes for the year and if they wear well, for several years. Who lives like that? Do you know anyone who has only one pair of shoes from dawn to dusk and through all four seasons. That’s what I want. I don’t know anyone who has that life. I will be the first. (fb) ~ What kind of person would ever run a blog like this ? Truly disgusting if you ask me. Anonymous ~ But no one asked you ~ Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality. – John W. Gardner (fb) ~ Meditation: There’s a truth in every lie, and falsehood in every truth. If you watch the mechanics of how a magic trick works…its means little. If you sit back and enjoy the ride you get a whole show, one that may remind you of what endless possibility felt like. How is showing potential a lie? Deeply our hearts knows the freedom and mobility of spirit…sometimes we need reminders that limitation is yet another fleeting illusion. (Does any one want me to do this for the whole major arcana? I need moral support here!) (fb) ~ A door to door preacher just visited. He asked ” Where can I go to find truth”. I told him that seeing him walk down the driveway would be truth. ~ “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ― E.E. Cummings (fb) ~ “I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken – and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived. ” ― Margaret Mitchell (fb) ~ “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (fb) ~ Creating only shares some information publicly. If you know Creating, send her a friend request or message her.~ Twitter says that the tweet threatening to hang me is “not actionable.” – “We have investigated the reported account and have found that it’s not in violation of the Twitter Rules at this time. We have a policy against violent threats, but the content of this account lacks the specificity to meet the criteria of an actionable threat.” (fb) ~ When everyone is trying to be something, be nothing. Range with emptiness. Human should be like a pot. As the pot is hold by its emptiness inside, human is hold by the awareness of his nothingness.(fb) ~ Please don’t “thank” me for my patience. Just apologize for your incompetence and the inconvenience. (fb) ~ Religion is for people afraid of going to hell.. Spirituality is for people who have already been there… (fb) ~ “The difference between a GOP convention and Comic-Con is the people at Comic-Con have a much firmer grasp of reality.” — Bill Maher (fb) ~ There was a sign once. It said that G-d handles all problems. My question was, does this refer to the creation of problems, or their solution? ~ What is significant in one’s own existence one is hardly aware, and it certainly should not bother the other fellow. What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life? Alber Einstein ~ In urban political geography today, my professor said, “Yeah, I really don’t know why this local pride or local solidarity thing manages to convince urban populations to do things. I suppose someone must have done some work on that, but buggered if I have any idea what it is.” … really? REALLY? This is a well-respected social scientist – a geographer, true – at the end of a long career. I may not be on top of the economic sources of power in urban politics, but it comforts me to know that there are some questions that anthropology speaks well on, and other disciplines do not. /pretentious (fb) ~ I find this whole trend of people re-questing to be “de-friended” based on support of a political party alarming. I also fell that right out “de-friending” someone based on political affiliation is equally as alarming When you do this you become a singular “party of no”. You end the conversation, you move backwards, you create a greater divide. I understand that differing views are personal on many levels but this is not progress or forward momentum. We must keep conversations open and start to bridge the divide not widen it. If I had one major take away from The First Lady’s speech last night it is this. No matter if you’re Democrat, Republican, Moderate, we are all Americans and in this thing together for the long haul. Let’s keep building bridges so that haul is a little less of a burden. (fb) ~ “History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man.” ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley (fb) ~ Whats up, yes I am still in need of a man to meetup with. I’m not in need of a committed relationship how ever, there simply are not enough minutes in the day. I’m only in need of a man as a sex buddy, Both of us get what we need with none of the commitments. ~ True story…. before I was born my Mom was discussing baby names with her canasta group gals from St Matthews in the ‘Boro and said she was going to name a boy baby ‘John’. One of the other ladies exclaimed to her, “Oh, don’t name him ‘John’! Every Tom, Dick and Harry’s named ‘John’!’ ” :>) (which was pretty close….the Prez, Pope, our parish priest and our family Dr who delivered me were all ‘John’) (fb) ~ this month october has 5 mondays, 5 tuesdays, and 5 wednesdays. this happens once every 823 years. this is called money bags. So share this on your wall and money will arrive within 4 days. (Based on Chinese Feng Shui) ~ White coral bells upon a slender stalk, Lilies of the valley deck my garden walk. On, don’t you wish that you could hear them ring? That will only happen when the fairies sing. ~ The artist uses the talent he has, wishing he had more talent. The talent uses the artist it has, wishing it had more artist. ~Robert Brault (fb) ~ Somebody listened to Joseph Campbell too long. ~ The blogger who condemns Fr. DeVito is named Mary Griffin. If you’d like to let her know how you feel about her self-righteous and judgmental position, you can email her at brooklyncatholic@yahoo.com. I promised both Fr. DeVito and his cousin that our conversations would be off-the-record but I will say that, years from now, when the next generation of bishops and cardinals and popes will suddenly listen to the Holy Spirit and announce to us that women may be ordained, that married people may be ordained and that gay is a non-issue, we will all be arguing about whether Fr. DeVito’s strategy of remaining within the church while working in subtle ways to usher in these changes was right or wrong. Should he have boldly proclaimed his convictions and been given the boot as have other priests? No matter which side of that argument is yours, you will owe him some degree of thanks for the good he has accomplished. Note to Bishop Man-Sell, if you now want to echo what you personally believe about LGBT equality, you can do it by making DeVito a monsignor, or is that too fearless a gesture for you? (fb) ~ There was a yard sale on the way back. Someone has cleaned out a den, and has ten boxes of VHS movies for sale. For two dollars, PG took home The Treasure of Sierra Madre, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Days of Heaven, Torch Song Trilogy, Carrie, Forbidden Planet, A Hard Days Night, Das Boot, and The Dirty Dozen. Unopened sets of James Bond movies are still available. ~ can we go back to when Facebook was about Farmville and untagging terrible, drunken photos? I’d rather get 10,000 Mafia Wars invites instead of reading desperate pleas of people trying to validate their opinions/thoughts/existences through a screen. (fb) ~ We don’t use logic when we think. We use logic when selling/defending what we have thought. ~ everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid. ~ Don’t believe everything you hear people say. ~ “You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.” – Carl Sagan (fb) ~ I write like says this display of effluent was written like William Shakespeare. Does this support the Infinite monkey theorem? Pictures are from The Library of Congress. ~ Selah
Keep It Safe And Simple
There is a formula for simplicity. Keep it simple, stupid. This saying is an acronym for kiss, which is a popular human activity. The saying is good for things where complications can cause problems.
PG first encountered this expression in Sports Illustrated. Some old quarterback, maybe Yelberton Abraham Tittle, was talking about how to score touchdowns. One illustration of the concept was when Mr. Tittle became known by his initials, Y.A.
The saying has a few flaws. Some people think stupid is a bad word. Others take the saying personally, and think they are being called stupid. It can get complicated, which defeats the purpose.
Yesterday, PG sat in on a “heart weaving workshop”. The idea was to create gimmicks to bring people closer. One of the things say was the intimacy breaks down into “into you I see”. At some point, someone started to write down stuff on a message board.
The words safe and simple were written down. Safety is a big deal these days. The idea of not being in harm’s way is very appealing.
At this point, the idea lightbulb went off in PG’s head. People in the room started to blink, and shield their eyes. Maybe KISS stands forKeep It Safe and Simple.
The KISS epiphany was on a saturday. The next day was the type of glorious sunday morning that was meant to be spent outdoors. In the outdoor office, the coffee ran out at the same time as the pictures to be processed.
But not before PG found one of the 10th Street Art Theater. This was on the strip, next door to the A&P. It was on Peachtree, between 11th and 12th. Or maybe it was between 10th and 11th. It was tough to tell the difference sometimes.
The 10th Street Art Theater showed dirty movies. In the sixties, pornography was gentler, and more innocent. This was the age of Russ Meyer. His flicks graced the screen at TSAT. When “Vixen” played, you could call a phone number and get a personal invitation to come down and see the film.
This is the part of the strip that is conveniently forgotten. There was an urban grunge factor. It was a transitional downtown area, with a lot of sleazy characters. As the summer of love faded into the winter of methedrine, it got worse. The strip became dangerous and complicated.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
This was written like William Shakespeare.
Seven Brilliant Quotes Part Two
Welcome to part two of the Chamblee54 due diligence report on the Seven Brilliant Quotes. In part one, we checked out the first three. At no time was a source for the quote found. All three are suspect, with “misunderstanding” indicated in the Albert Einstein quote. It is amazing how quickly accepted these sayings are by the inspiration hungry public.
The seven quotes, in a copy friendly format, are:
William Shakespeare – Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.
Napoleon Bonaparte – The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
Albert Einstein – I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. Its because of them I did it myself.
Abraham Lincoln – If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. – We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.
Mohandas Gandhi – The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Dr. Abdul Kalam – It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.
Getting back to business, did Abraham Lincoln say “If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.” There are lots of links to this quote, in a variety of fonts and colors. Some have spectacular photography in the background. However, none of these links has a source for this quote, or any indication of the context.
Wikiquotes has 43,444 words about Abraham Lincoln. PG copied these words, and did a search for the word “friendship”. There were three quotes.
The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships. Letter to Joseph Gillespie 13 July 1849.
By such things the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship effectual.
The Lyceum Address 1838
A civil war occurring in a country, where foreigners reside and carry on trade under treaty stipulations is necessarily fruitful of complaints of the violation of neutral rights. All such collisions tend to excite misapprehensions, and possibly to produce mutual reclamations between nations which have a common interest in preserving peace and friendship. Second State of the Union address 1862.
This type of research can be frustrating. Being inspired by beautiful words can give you strength and purpose. It can also make you feel foolish, when the lovely words are revealed to be lies. Being a cynic gets lonely. Children of all ages don’t like to be told that there is no Santa Claus.
The good news is that number five is for real. Martin Luther King gave a speech at Western Michigan University in 1963. There is a probably his standard speech, given many times. The second section of the speech is “Call for action.”
“The world in which we live is geographically one. Now we are challenged to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Now through our ethical and moral commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great challenge of the hour. This is true of individuals. It is true of nations. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone.”
“I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. [W]e’re challenged after working in the realm of ideas, to move out into the arena of social action and to work passionately and unrelentingly to make racial justice a reality.”
“[W]e must never substitute a doctrine of Black supremacy for white supremacy. For the doctrine of Black supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy. God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men but God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers.”
PG has written about the problem of quoting Mohandas Gandhi before. Supposedly he said “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity.” PG thinks this is a fabrication.
The quote on the poster is “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Wikiquotes has a link to Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online. The next stop is page 302 of this section. Mr. Gandhi gave an “Interview to the press” in Karachi, on March 26, 1931. A freedom fighter named Bhagat Singh had been executed by the British three days earlier.
Do you not think it impolitic to forgive a government which has been guilty of a thousand murders?
I do not know a single instance where forgiveness has been found so wanting as to be impolitic.
But no country has ever shown such forgiveness as India is showing to Britain?
That does not affect my reply. What is true of individuals is true of nations. One cannot forgive too much. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
The bottom line is from Dr. Abdul Kalam. (The name is misspelled on the poster.) The phrase is “It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.” Many viewers have no idea who this person is. Once again, Wikiquotes comes to the rescue. “Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (born 15 October 1931) Indian scientist and engineer; 11th President of India; generally referred to as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.” The quotes are from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam.
A search for the word “defeat” did not show results. A search for “win” shows a few.
“the best way to win was to not need to win. The best performances are accomplished when you are relaxed and free of doubt.” (p. 31) “Happiness, satisfaction, and success in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life working for you and against you. One must distinguish the beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them.” (p. 106)
“Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done.” (p. 176)
The phrase on the poster also credited to John Keats. There is also the story of the student who argues with an atheist professor, and ultimately wins. The student is sometimes said to be Albert Einstein. In this version, Argumnent : What, Who is GOD?, the coda is “This seems to be a true story, and the student was none other than APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India “.
The research for part one consisted of entering the quote into a search engine. It was not until the Lincoln investigation that the method of copying wikiquote, and searching for a key word, was discovered. Out of a sense of fairness, the first three quotes will be investigated using this method.
For William Shakespeare, the search word was risk. There were no results. For Napoleon Bonaparte, the search word was violence. There was one result. “There is no such thing as an absolute despotism; it is only relative. A man cannot wholly free himself from obligation to his fellows. A sultan who cut off heads from caprice, would quickly lose his own in the same way. Excesses tend to check themselves by reason of their own violence. What the ocean gains in one place it loses in another. ” For Albert Einstein, the search word was thankful. There were no results.
So, there are seven quotes in the motivational poster. Only two of the seven have a apparent source.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Seven Brilliant Quotes Part One
There is a little graphic floating around, Seven Brilliant Quotes. Some find these sayings to be inspirational. PG smells a rat. Here are the seven quotes:
William Shakespeare – Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.
Napoleon Bonaparte – The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
Albert Einstein – I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. Its because of them I did it myself.
Abraham Lincoln – If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. – We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.
Mahatma Gandhi – The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Abdul Kalaam – It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.
If nothing else, research into the veracity of these quotes should provide some amusing text to go between the pictures. When you go looking in the land of google, there is no telling what you will find. During this expedition, the first page rule will be in effect. Only results on the first google page will be considered. The NB quote has 1.7 million results, which is too much work.
There are Four Principles of Quotation.
Principle 1 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with an author but no source assume that it is probably bogus.
Principle 2 (for readers) Whenever you see a quotation given with a full source assume that it is probably being misused, unless you find good evidence that the quoter has read it in the source.
Principle 3 (for quoters) Whenever you make a quotation, give the exact source.
Principle 4 (for quoters) Only quote from works that you have read.
Lets begin with Willie the shake. Did he really say “Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.”? Or, as they say in the Yahoo village, Does anyone know where this Shakespeare quote comes from?
hugeshantz Does anyone know where this Shakespeare quote comes from? I’ve seen this quote all over the internet, always attributed to Shakespeare, but I can’t find a legitimate source of where it comes from (i.e. a specific sonnet, play, speech, etc.): “Never play….” Can anyone help me out here?
Dude the Obscure This is 20th/21st century psychobabble. Shakespeare never wrote anything remotely resembling that. Please never trust any of these idiotic “internet quote sites.” They are all, all, all crap. I can’t believe that any intelligent person could think for a minute that this was written by Shakespeare. Really. Get some critical-thinking skills, child.
The next quote is by Napoleon Bonaparte, not Napoleon Dynamite. “The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.”
Before we consider the veracity of this quote, lets consider two things. NB did not speak english, so there is likely to be translation confusion. Second, the wars NB started caused widepread suffering. Little of this suffering was caused by the silence of good people.
The sources on page one do little except show the quote, usually with the credit going to NB. No one shows when or where he said it, or in what context. Brainyquotes doea not show it on the NB pages. (This page has a picture of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, with the slogan “America’s comeback team.” DONATE.) The only good thing to come out of this search is this: Great truths that little children have learned. These thoughts are probably more valuable than the Seven Brilliant Quotes.
1) No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.
2) When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don’t let her brush your hair.
3) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
4) You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.
5) Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
6) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
7) You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
8) Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
9) The best place to be when you’re sad is Grandpa’s lap.
10) If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back. They always catch the second person.
Number three is from Albert Einstein.” I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. Its because of them I did it myself.” According to Shelly Winters, Marilyn Monroe did not say no to Dr. Einstein. Google has a doozy of a forum, Misquoting Einstein?.
Jimmy Snyder says the quote has been attributed to Dorothy Parker, Yogi Berra, William Shakespeare, The Bible, Benjamin Franklin, and Groucho Marx. This is a clue that the quote is bogus.
shinokk So, I’ve recently come across the following quote: “I am thankful …” I’ve tried googling to see if there’s any proof he actually said that, but my search yielded little to no result. So, now I’m here and I need your help. Does anyone know if Einstein really said this?
zoobyshoe This is the place to go to find the history of Einstein quotes: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein I can’t find this one. It is always possible it’s a heavily paraphrased version of something he said at one point, but it strikes me as more likely it’s a quote from someone else erroneously attributed to him.
dipole I doubt very much that many people told Einstein “no”.
zoobyshoe’s I just found this an another wiki page discussing the quote page: “I am thankful …” This is being attributed to Einstein on the Internet, but it appears to come from Wayne W. Dyer’s book You’ll See It When You Believe It, page 54, according to Google Books. Dyer does not attribute it to Einstein, but mentions Einstein in the same paragraph.
“In my office I have two framed posters. One is a picture of Albert Einstein, beneath which are the words “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” The other poster is made up solely of words: “I am grateful to all those people who said no. It is because of them I did it myself.” Great thoughts!”
Ryan_m_b’s “Never believe quotes you read on the internet” – Winston Churchill
zoobyshoe’s I believe his actual words were: “The internet has nothing to offer, but blood, tears, toil, and misquotes.”
It should not be surprising that Winston Churchill finds his way into this discussion. He has a taste for the spotlight, even 47 years after his demise. He is an example of how truthiness is sometimes all you need. His most famous speech was a radio address during a bad part of World War Two. The speech was read by an actor. England was inspired, and went on to win the war. Why should anyone worry if an actor gave his speech for him.
This is enough fun for one day. There will be a part two soon, and it will probably be full of number two. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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