Tracing Quotations
Alice Roosevelt Longworth? Marie Corelli? Jane Burr? Rose Guggenheim Winslow? Nancy Hale? Ruth Hanna McCormick? Walter Winchell? Ethel Barrymore? Grace Hodgson Flandrau? Question for Quote Investigator: A U.S. politician running for president was once described as a “little man on a wedding cake” and a “bridegroom on the wedding cake”. This ridicule harmed his campaign, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Like a Little Bridegroom On a Wedding Cake”
Mrs. Patrick Campbell? Beatrice Stella Tanner? Helen Maud Tree? Oscar Wilde? Linkum Fidelius? Washington Irving? Alice Roosevelt Longworth? Eric Erskine Wood? Mrs. Claude Beddington? Frances Ethel Beddington? John Moore? King Edward VII? Ronald Reagan? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Enforcing societal norms and taboos is an important activity for some people. Others hesitate to proscribe …
Alice Roosevelt Longworth? Bettina Borrmann Wells? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and the wife of politician Nicholas Longworth III. For decades she was a well-known socialite in Washington D.C. who experienced praise and condemnation for her sharp wit which was sometimes caustic. Calvin Coolidge who …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Only Trouble With Coolidge Is That He Was Weaned on a Pickle”
Fanny Brice? Alice Roosevelt Longworth? Beatrice Lillie? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Giving birth to a child is an intense physical ordeal. A witty woman employed the following simile: Having a baby is like trying to push a grand piano through a transom. This remark has been attributed to the prominent Washington socialite Alice Roosevelt …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Giving Birth Is Like Pushing a Piano Through a Transom”
Dorothy Parker? Alice Roosevelt Longworth? Earl Wilson? Robert Harling? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The most trenchant comment pertaining to gossip that I have ever heard is often attributed to the wit Dorothy Parker. The quip is based on altering the following conventional instruction on etiquette: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If You Can’t Say Something Good About Someone, Sit Right Here by Me”