Tracing Quotations
Elvis Presley? Dwight D. Eisenhower? The White Rabbit? Clint Eastwood? Martin Gabel? Adlai Stevenson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Some humorous quotations are created by cleverly transforming prosaic expressions. Most people are familiar with the exhortation: Don’t just stand there, do something. However, occasionally inaction is preferable, and the following rearranged sentence has been employed: …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Don’t Just Do Something; Stand There”
Speaker: Gore Vidal? Peter Bogdanovich? Sue Mengers? Jason Epstein? Anonymous? Subject: Truman Capote? Elvis Presley? Michael Jackson? Gore Vidal? Question for Quote Investigator: Pop star Michael Jackson died in 2009 when he was only fifty years old. One memorably caustic remark I heard at that time was: His death was a good career move. Apparently, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Death Was a Good Career Move”
Frank Sinatra? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I greatly enjoy the singing of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, so I was surprised to hear that Sinatra once attacked the type of music that Elvis popularized. Supposedly Sinatra said: Rock n Roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my …