Conference thebay::joyoflex

	I thought it was "glitters".

	Dan

    RE: .1
    
    I've heard people use both "glistens" and "glitters." 
    
    I'll check the Gray poem (if I can find it!). 

. . . "It is the only thing"

			- Vince Lombardi

or slight variations thereof.  Problem was, he never said it.  The closest he 
came (paraphrased) was "Winning isn't everything.  Trying to win is."

The Churchill ". . . blood, sweat, and tears" which was actuall "blood, toil, 
tears, and sweat" is in another note.

Clay    
     

Also in another recent note, I believe, is "[The love of] money is the root 
of all evil".

    
    Hamlet's "Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him well." is a misquote of
    
    	Alas, poor Yorick.  I knew him, Horatio; a man of infinite
    	jest, of most excellent fancy.
    
    
    The time-worn "Business before pleasure" is a misquote of Thackeray's
    
    	Business first; pleasure afterwards.
    
    Bernie

In the movie Casablanca, Bogey never actually says "Play it again, Sam." I
think there is a line something like "You played it for her, now play it for
me."

Pete

    G'day
    
    In the 'Merchant of Venice' by that well known English lad from the
    Elizabethan era, or thereyabouts, one William Shakespeare, Portia's
    suitors must choose from a one of three caskets lead, silver and Gold.
    The hero of the plot, one Antonio, the merchant of Venice, chooses
    lead. Portia comments that 'all that GLISTERS is not gold'. This was an
    indication that she was rapt in the choice and reckoned he done good by
    choosing the lead one!
    
    leastways that how I recall it.
    
    Derek
    

    Very good, Derek --
    
    The exact context:  It isn't Portia that speaks the words;
    they are part of a verse found inside the gold casket. They
    are actually read by the Prince of Morocco, and go like this:
    
    		All that glisters is not gold;
    		Often you have heard that told.
		Many a man his life hath sold
    		But my outside to behold.
    		Gilded tombs do worms infold.
    		Hath you been as wise as bold.
    		Young in limbs, in judgment old,
    		Your answer had not been inscrolled
    		Fare you well, your suit is cold.
    
    					Merchant Of Venice; II,vii; 64-73
                                                                   

    RE: 731.7
    
    Antonio is the Merchant - his young friend who wins Portia is Bassanio.
    

    
    G'day
    
    Re .8 - Thanks! Memory fades after 26 years out of high school....:-(
    
    
    yacc = yet another casting correction..
    
    Bassanio wins Nerissa, Portia's maid, n'est-ce pas?
    
    And Shylock's daughter runs off with???
    
    derek

    Sorry, but no.
    
    Bassanio wins Portia.  His serving man (whose name escapes me) wins
    Nerissa, who is Portia's serving woman.  Lorenzo runs away with
    Shylock's daughter, Jessica.   Antonio, poor lad, wins no one, but
    does get to keep his pound of flesh firmly attached to his body.
    
    DeBanne (who once played Portia, and does remember with whom she ended
    up in the final clinch)
    

    Ahhh G'day,
    
    _NOW_ I know why I failed Eng. Lit. first time thru!...;-)
    
    
    
    I remember seeing M o V at 'The Old Vic' in London as a schoolkid. When
    Portia and Nerissa appeared in, what appeared to be, low cut gowns, all
    that could be heard through the auditorium was the sound of sixpenny
    pieces being pushed into the slots so that the opera glasses could be
    brought into play!
    
    
    My favourite character was Lancelot Gobbo. (or is he in Macbeth?)
    
    
    derek
    

    Lancelot Gobbo is M o V.  Forgot to look up the name of Bassanio's
    sidekick, though.  To be continued...
    
    Are you downunder, or is g'day general pleasantry?
    
    DeBanne
    

    G'day,
    
    
    Yup, I'm Darnunderr - A Pom in self imposed exile... ;-)
    
    been on my head for 11 years now and am even considering having 
    'the Op' ie becoming neutralised (naturalised)!
    
    
    ...and my candle gleam _is_ like a good deed in a naughty world!
    
    (or so I would like to think)
    
    derek

    Gratiano is Bassanio's manservant -- he woos and wins Nerissa,
    Portia's lady-in-waiting.
    
    					andrew

        Uhhh-h-h- Is this on ABC or CBS?

    Most likely PBS, after 10pm.

    All right, then!  Before this totally degenerates into a rathole...
    
    Who ends up with ...
    
    Portia  -  Bassanio
    Nerissa -  Gratiano
    Jessica -  Lorenzo
    Antonio -  His pound of flesh (still attached)
    Shylock -  Christianity
    
    The End!
    
    DeBanne
    

.17>    Most likely PBS, after 10pm.
                         ^^^^^^^^^^

  ... or as people used to say in the UK, after the Council Houses have gone 
      to bed.

      Meaning the inhabitants of Public Housing. (Don't blame me for casting
      aspersions, I merely report the usage .)

      Jim

Another note is devoted to puns on 

	Elementary, my dear Watson.

I don't want to rathole that note, so I'll enter my question here.  Isn't this 
a misquote?  I know Basil Rathbone said it many times, but can anybody quote a 
passage from a Conan Doyle short story or novel in which Holmes says, 
"Elementary, my dear Watson"?

Clay

    
    That is correct.  The canon contains no such quote.
    
    - David
    

And, if you'd known that bit of trivia, you could have been in the
running for one week's use of the Car Talk t-shirt! (It was the
answer to the Car Talk Puzzler two weeks ago.)

-Perry

Most would finish this with "... and they'll take a mile."

I believe the correct quote is "... and they'll take an ell." but I don't know
where the quote comes from.

Wook

        I would agree with the first version but what the ell...

        What is an "ell" anyway?!

>I believe the correct quote is "... and they'll take an ell." but I don't know
>where the quote comes from.

An ell is like a cubit, but it's not the same size.

Dave C.

    An ell is a measure of cloth, it's about 45 inches.
    
    Nick

        And an ell is a wing of a building that sticks out at right
        angles. (Or it wouldn't be an ell would it?)

        What was the question? 8^)

        	Mike

    And there's the quote from "Sebastian", the conductor crab in the new
    Disney Movie "The Little Mermaid"....
    
    "teenagers....give 'em an inch and they swim all over you"
    
    -Jody
    

    I dunno exactly what'd be the right string for these but what the
    hey...  Courtesy of my daughter the ORACLE.
    
    I certainly won't be surprised to see some of these pop up as some of
    your Personal Names...  Or in mine...  :-)
    
    > > These are from the New Yorker magazine competition where they asked
    > > competitors to change ONE letter in a familiar non-English phrase
    > > and redefine it.
    >
    > > HARLEZ-VOUS FRAN�AIS? - Can you drive a French motorcycle?
    >
    > > EX POST FUCTO - Lost in the mail
    >
    > > IDIOS AMIGOS - We're wild and crazy guys!
    >
    > > VENI, VIPI, VICI - I came; I'm a very important person; I conquered
    >
    > > J'Y SUIS, J'Y PESTES - I can stay for the weekend
    >
    > > COGITO EGGO SUM - I think; therefore, I am a waffle
    >
    > > RIGOR MORRIS - The cat is dead
    >
    > > RESPONDEZ S'IL VOUS PLAID - Honk if you're Scots
    >
    > > QUE SERA SERF - Life is feudal                 
    >
    > > LE ROI EST MORT. JIVE LE ROI - The King is dead.  No kidding.
    >
    > > POSH MORTEM - Death styles of the rich and famous
    >
    > > PRO BOZO PUBLICO - Support your local clown
    >
    > > MONAGE A TROIS - I am three years old
    >
    > > PARDONNEZ-MOT - That wasn't funny.  Sorry.
    >
    > > FELIX NAVIDAD - Our cat has a boat
    >
    > > HASTE CUISINE - Fast French food
    >
    > > VENI, VIDI, VICE - I came, I saw, I partied.
    >
    > > QUIP PRO QUO - A fast retort
    >
    > > ALOHA OY - Love; greetings; farewell; from SOCH a pain, you should
    >                                                           never know!
    > > MAZEL TON - Lots of luck
    >
    > > PORTE-KOCHERE - Sacramental wine
    >
    > > APRES MOE LE DELUGE - Larry and Curly get wet
    >
    > > ICH LIEBE RICH - I'm really crazy about having dough
    >
    > > FUI GENERIS - What's mine is mine
    >
    > > VISA LA FRANCE - Don't leave chateau without it
    >
    > > �A VA SANS DIRT - And that's not gossip
    >
    > > MERCI RIEN - Thanks for nothin'.
    >
    > > AMICUS PURIAE - Platonic friend
    >
    > > L'ETAT, C'EST MOO - I'm bossy around here
    >
    > > L'ETAT, C'EST MOE - All the world's a stooge

    Gee, commuting was fun this morning...  And how would I have survived
    if I hadn't had one of those notepads that attaches near the steering
    wheel?
    
    PLUS �A CHANGE, PLUS C'EST LE M�ME CHORE -- I hate housework
    
    QU'ILS MANGENT DU B�TEAU -- Assuming they're termites, that is...
    
    O TEMPURA, O MORES -- Can't get anything but Thai food around here 
                          anymore...
    
    ... and with but a slight extension of the rules... :-)
    
    APR�S MOI, LE PELAGE -- I'll check how warm the water is, first!
    
    L'�CLAT, C'EST MOI -- Dictator *Hell,* call me THOR!!!    *^@BOOM!!@#!!!
    
    O� SONT LES VI�RGES D'ANTAN? -- O Tempora, O Mores!

    Several folks, including cherished and respected members of mine own
    fambly :-(!) whom I would preSUME would know that I know, have pointed
    out that they presume moi has referred in error to Tempura as a Thai
    cuisine.  "Yakitori"! on them, sez I.
    
    But of *course* Tempura is Japanese.  I've known that since I sipped my
    first Miso.  My lament (_vide_ original sense of "O TEMPORA, O MORES")
    was that all the good local Japanese restaurants around my neighborhood
    seem to be being replaced by Thai restaurants, which are, it would
    seem, more "in" these days.  I love Thai food, to be sure, but
    sometimes there's nothing I like more than a good Shrimp TEMPURA, tyvm.
    
    Pardon the excessive use of telegraphy.  Shoulda provided more context.
    
    And btw folks, I'm having second thoughts about P�LAGE meaning
    something having to do with swimming.  I'm beginning to think that if
    it *is* a French word at all, it's more likely to have something to do
    with FISHing...  Any nonpseudoFrancophones care to set (what little
    remains of :-) my mind at ease?
    
    TEMPUS FUKIT -- Forget it, I don't care *what* time it is, let's DO it!
                                                                           

    	My dictionary gives "pelage" (without the accent) as the
    fur/wool/coat of an animal, and "p�lagien" (with the accent) as an
    adjective for deep sea (animal/plant).
    
    	You might describe a whale as p�lagien, though it has no very
    noticeable pelage. Otters (at least in this part of the world) have a
    pelage, but are not p�lagien.

    Re .31, .32: Correct definition, Dave. 'Pelage' is related to 'poil'
    (hair) and means the whole set of hair (usually on a mammal).
    'P�lagien' is related to the ancient Greek word 'pelasgos' which means
    the sea (and the 'Pelasgoi', or 'Pelastoi' were the pre-Greek
    inhabitants of Greece).
    			Denis (native born francophone).

    Well, maybe not full marks, but I think that some of the meaning
    clusters somewhere in the oceanic realm...
    
    First, while fastening on pelage yesterday morning, I guess I was
    groping towards the French word for beach and grabbed it.  Then last
    evening I began to remember the French guidebook phrase "O� est la
    plage?" and then worried that I'd misconstructed pelage from that.  I
    think I must have been confused by a vague  recollection from something
    like our National Geographic magazine to deep-ocean-dwelling "pelagic"
    fishes or birds or something.    
    
    Interestingly enough, I find in my Random House American College
    Dictionary that definition 1 of "pelagian" is "Of or pertaining to the
    seas or oceans" and also mentions in 2 "Living at or near the surface
    of the ocean, far from land, as in certain animals or plants."  
    
    So, despite my initial confusion, I guess I haven't been sunk *too*
    deeply in the Sargasso Sea by the Albatross of error...  
    
    Let me propose, revisionistically:
    
    APR�S MOI LE PELAGE -- No, let *me* catch the first fish!!
    
    Dan KALIKOW (I think that Continental CAPITALIZATION is so
                 UTILITARIAN!:-)

    Alternatively (and obscurely):
    
    APR�S MOI LE PELAGE - The line for heretics forms here.
    
    					Ann B.

    Re .35: Sorry not to have mentionned that acception of the term, but I
    thought Pelasgianism had been dead and forgotten for about 14 or 15
    centuries now... I try to be more exhaustive next time.
    			Denis.

    Re: .35
    
    You just caused my two neighbors on the other sides of my cubes
    to look up to see what I was laughing so hysterically at . . .
    
    --bonnie

    IN HOC SIGNO VINTES - Fine wines sold whereever you see this symbol.
    
    						Ann B.

    l'eclair, c'est moi  == you are what you eat...
    
    vax populi           == VAX of the people
    
    toot LeMond          == honk your bike horn at Greg LeMond
    
    Dominus vobiscuit    == God gives you a biscuit
    
    eat two Brute        == dig in!
    
    bon motormouth       == the exact word said too quickly
    
    und so waiter        == waiters, etc

    au reservoir	== see you at the lake

    hasta lumbago	== see you at the chiropractor's

    Sick transit Gloria -- get her to the hospital fast.
    
    --bonnie

    Hic Transit Gloria -- Careful, she's driving drunk again!
    
    					andrew

    sic transit gloria thursdi - thus passes the glory of payday?
    

    Sic gloria transit mundi - Gloria threw up on the bus Monday.
    
    Bernie

    
    CARPET DIEM - The day they promised to deliver the new rug.
    
    ID NAUSEUM - Needs a psychiatrist. (Or has a really bad one!)
    
    TABULA RASTA - Don' be erasin' ma tablet, mon.
    
    MOTOR DOLOROSA - My car's engine on _really_, _really_ cold mornings.
    
    -b

    MISS QUOTATION - The newspaper columnist who brings us these.

    IN HOCK SIGNO VINCES - Notification that Vince's is going out of
        business
    
    CUM GRONO SALIS - Assalted by puns
    
    IN DINO VERITAS - "Bark once if Fred's home; bark twice if he's not"
    
    CAF� AU LAITY - Without liqueur
    
    LA DOOCE VITA - Biography of Mrs. Mussolini
    
    And an old personal favorite:
    
    J'AI DEUX AMOURS, MON PAY ET PARIS - I'd expatriate in an instant if I
        could only find a job
    

    Dic transit Gloria --  They eloped.

    Polly-View Fran�ais -- and liked what she saw!
    
    Sic Transit; Glorious Monday!  -- The school bus broke down, 
                                      NO SCHOOL -- YAAY!!
    
    The above two courtesy of my Sis's SO, who seems to have been bitten by
    "the JOYOFLEX bug"...

STABIT MATER		Clytemnestra from Electra's point of view.

MERCHI BEAUCOUM		Fried anchovies (If you speak Korean, that is.)

    Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny
    Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 19:30:4 EDT
    From: [email protected] (Joan Young)
    Organization: Center for Environmental and Regulatory Information
    Systems, Purdue University
    Subject: MISSPELLED CHARACTERS
    
    DESCRIPTION OF PERSONS WITH NAMES ALTERED BY ONE LETTER:
    
         LITTLE BOA PEEP - shepherdess who absentmindedly ate her own
                           flock.
         JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHE - Wall Street baroquer.
         MOOSES - Hebrew prophet who parted the Maine woods.
         PERRY MASSON - television lawyer who will solve no case before
                        its time.
         EVICTOR HUGO - French landlord and author, "Lease Miserables"
         XEROXES - Persian photocopy king.
         ERICH MARINA REMARQUE - author, "All Quiet On The Waterfront."
    

    "Flagging a dead horse" -- a futile attempt at hitchhiking
    
    "There's no such thing as a free launch" -- Robert A. Heinsightlein's
    famous argument against the space program
    
    "90% of anything is hit" -- Surgeon's Law (specialist in traumatic
    injuries)
    

    Ludwig van Beathoven - he's into symphonic rock music

    Ah, that reminds me of MC Sturgeon's Law, "90% of everything is rap."
    

    On a bad day, you could say "0% of everything is crap" and be off by 1.
    
    
    [In case there's any doubt, that 1 means 100%.]

    Inspired by somebody's phonetic spelling of a foreign phrase:
    
    ESPRIT DECOR - choosing the colors of one's aura,
    
    	or,
    
    	the satisfaction of knowing that all of one's fellow
    	Marines look stunning in their dress uniforms.
    
    -b

    Someone (Disraeli?  Churchill?  Einstein?) was once visiting the lab
    where a new & apparently worthless but later-to-be-proven-absolutely-
    seminal invention was being shown.  When he asked the inventor "What
    USE is it?" he was cleverly rebuffed by the retort "What use is a
    baby?"
    
    Or maybe it was the other way around.
    
    Anecdote, please!  And no Misquotations!  Tnx, Dan
    

    The oldest version of that that I know:
    
    After the Framers had finished hammering together the U.S. Constitution,
    a non-participant asked what it was good for, and Benjamin Franklin
    gave the socratic answer, "Of what use is a newborn baby?"
    
    							Ann B.

    Re .58
    
    Can you supply a citation?  Considering that the Constitution was
    designed as a solution to known severe problems with the Articles
    of Confederation, it seems hard to believe that anyone would doubt
    its purpose.  Doubts about its legitimacy of course, and viability
    maybe, but purpose?  Really hard to believe.
    
    -- Norman Diamond

    norm, have you been talking to steve leech (of womannotes notoriety)
    lately?  :)
    
    --angela

    >norm, have you been talking to steve leech
    
    Never heard of him.
    
    >(of womannotes notoriety)
    
    Oh.  Never heard of her.
    
    Anyway, my request for a citation was sincere, because I really
    find it hard to believe that the quoted question would have been
    asked about that document.  What is objectionable about my request?
    
    -- Norman Diamond

    Norman,
    
    I remember it as one of the documented quips from _Ben_Franklin_
    _Laughing_, but I don't remember if it was about the Constitution,
    the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independance, or
    the Table of Contents.  And I haven't found the book yet.  I'd like
    to think it isn't in a box in storage.
    
    							Ann B.

    Norman,
    
    there is nothing objectionable about your request...
    Mr. Leech is an ardent admirer/scholar of the constitution
    as well, and your writing styles (not your noting styles)
    seem very similar to me.  I thought that you might
    know him through notes.
    
    --angela

    If it was Ben Franklin, Stevenson should have it - Book of Home
    Quotations or Book of Home Quotations or something - better
    (or at least bigger) than any other compendium of N. American
    Quotations. Its main flaw (apart from various misquotations
    and misreferences - one _horrific_ one whose details I forget)
    was `Marry in haste, repeat at leisure' (not in the text, but in
    an index entry).
    
    b

   Are you sure it isn't `repent at leisure'?

    Re .65
    
    > apart from various misquotations
    > and misreferences - one _horrific_ one whose details I forget)
    > was `Marry in haste, repeat at leisure'
    
    Bob, that is NOT a misquotation or a misreference.  It is a shortened
    version of the following line from the fantasy novel _Jurgen_ by James
    Branch Cabell:
    
    	I shall marry in haste, and repeat at leisure.
    
    -dick

     It's Mike but thanks for the reference.

     Fantasy?  Hmmmm. 8^)

     	mikeP

    Re .68
    
    Er, umm, Mike, I was answering Bob Knowles' .65, not your .66.
    
    Fantasy.  Not like the modern soup-brained sword-and-sorcery New Age
    fantasy - adult, intelligent stuff that is in my opinion far better. 
    Cabell was one of several 19th- and early 20th-century fantasy writers
    that I like.  I don't have all his novels, but some of them are:
    
    Jurgen (1919)
    The High Place (1923)
    The Cream of the Jest (1917)
    Domnei (1920)
    Figures of Earth (1921)
    
    Cabell is responsible for the following seriously profound witticism: 
    "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible
    worlds; and the pessimist fears that this is true."
    
    Other good stuff that I have on my shelves includes:
    
    The Boats of the Glen Carrig (1907), William Hope Hodgson
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1939), H. P. Lovecraft
    Silverlock (1949), John Myers Myers
    The Wood Beyond the World (1894), William Morris
    The Well of the Unicorn (1948), Fletcher Pratt
    
    Take a shot - you might like it.
    
    -dick

  So you were.  Sorry for the distraction.

    Norman,
    
    I found it!  It's anecdote 98. in _Ben_Franklin_Laughing_.  However,
    it doesn't refer to government at all!  <blush>  It is about the
    early ballon flights.  Here it is in translation from the
    _Correspondance_Litt�raire_ of Baron Fr�d�rick-Melchior von Grimm,
    for August 1783:
    
    	Many people who prided themselves upon remaining indifferent
    	[to the first ballon flights] in the midst of public enthusiasm
    	did not fail to repeat, "To what use do they expect to put
    	these experiments?  What good is this discovery that they
    	make so much noise about?"  The venerable Franklin replied
    	with his accustomed simplicity, "What good is a new-born baby?"
    
    By coincidence, I also found _The_Most_Dangerous_Man_in_America_ (a
    biography of Franklin) on the same day -- but in a different bookcase.
    
    							Ann B.

    (-: ...happy sigh... of release of long-held tension :-) -- NOW I will
    be able to use that thought with an authoritative author to cite, as
    well...  There's still far too much "that'll never amount to much!!"
    around these halls.  This now-solidly-credited quote will work wonders,
    at least for those of calcified brain with whom I joust who are
    American, British, and/or French...:-)
    
    Tnx again!!
                                          

    Dick -
    
    I didn't know about Cabell, but either the Stevenson index entry gave a
    pointer to the wrong source (Johnson) or it was a typo (as the source
    given was indeed Johnson, whose word was `repent'). If the latter, one
    could fantasize that Cabell spotted it too and turned it into a
    wisecrack.
    
    b

    re .73
    
    When was Stevenson collected, Bob?  That'd answer your suggestion that
    Cabell saw it there.  Jurgen was published in 1919.
    
    -dick

    Not sure, Dick. It's a while since I was au fait with this stuff. My
    recollection is that I only ever handled quite recent copies of
    Stevenson ('60s/'70s), but I wouldn't have used a first edition
    anyway. If it _was_ post-war (I'll check when I can get to a decent
    library) Cabell must have been extraordinarily prescient (!)
    
    b