07.06.08
Posted in Churchill, myths and misconceptions at 9:54 am by Bill Brohaugh
Today’s the final day of our holiday weekend celebrating independence from the British, which has led to, most critical of all, silly jokes about how our versions of English have evolved separately (”knocking someone up” has two quite different meanings here and there). Because of the residuals of a fair amount of celebration (it was not my bottle rocket that burned the shape of the Greater Antilles onto my neighbor’s deck), I’m going to let someone else do the talking. Specifically, that someone else is me, by quoting my Everything You Know About English Is Wrong
in an entry about other people who do the talking even when they’re not talking.
You see, certain people seem to be quote magnets. They “say” things they’ve never said. But people associate certain types of profundities and witticisms with specific personalities. Today we’re discussing (for the moment, anyway) one Mr. Oscar Wilde. As Leo Knowles writes on worldwidereference.com, “Oscar Wilde famously declared that Britain and America were two nations divided by a common language. Actually he didn’t quite say that but he should have done, which is why he is always misquoted.” (I hope I quoted Mr. Knowles correctly. . . .)
For the record, Sir Winston Churchill said “Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language.”
No he didn’t, but Churchill is another quote magnet often getting the credit. Actually, Bertrand Russell said it.
No he didn’t. He did write in 1944 (in The Saturday Evening Post): “It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language.” Actually, Dylan Thomas said it.
No he didn’t. He did write that we were “up against the barrier of a common language,” as published in The Listener in 1954. Actually, Oscar Wilde said it. You knew it all along, didn’t you?
Except he didn’t. Wilde’s version in the land of Great Minds Quip Alike is from 1887’s The Canterville Ghost: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.” But it definitely was not George Bernard Shaw who said it.
Well, it likely is Shaw, actually, who said “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.” And you can quote him on that, because he also has been credited with saying, “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”
(Does it ever make you wonder why that quote is never mis-attributed to an American? Or an Australian?)
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05.26.08
Posted in Churchill, humor at 1:18 pm by Bill Brohaugh
. . . practices his growl, and cracks his knuckles before setting out to type these very words of introduction to the web-log for the book Everything You Know About English Is Wrong. (No, it is not a [can I bear to type it?] “blog.” It is a web-log, for the reasons stated here.)
This first post seeks to introduce this new title from Sourcebooks, now hitting the bookstores (and I expect people to be hitting me back soon). I’m going to step aside for this first post and mention a couple of early comments:
If you love language and the unvarnished truth, you’ll love Everything You Know About English Is Wrong. You’ll have fun because his lively, comedic, skeptical voice will speak to you from the pages of his word-bethumped book.
That’s Richard Lederer, who wrote such wonderful word books as Anguished English, Get Thee to a Punnery and Word Wizard. Thank you Richard.
Beginning with his “English Delusionary” (a glossary of words created solely for this volume), Bill Brohaugh wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He spends a great deal of time considering irregularities in the English language and our repetitive abuse of them. This is not necessarily a bad thing because Brohaugh, the former editor of Writer’s Digest, isn’t cranky about usage issues. Rather, he’s quite amused. Items that have rendered other linguists apoplectic, seem to merit his mirth. Double negatives? Great! Ending a sentence with a preposition? You betcha! Fond of your ”ain’t”? Have at it! Brohaugh embraces the colloquial while providing insights into just how we arrived at such a comfy kind of grammar. Employing ample pop culture references, he reminds us that “the broken are made to be rules” when it comes to the English language. The book provides a good counterpoint to Lynne Truss’s anxiety-inducing Eats, Shoots & Leaves and will be enjoyed by everyone who can’t quite admit to being amused by William Safire because they can’t get past his politics. In other words, Brohaugh is funner.
That’s from a blog on FeatureBook.com. (Wow!–funner than Safire! Though that’s most of the world, but I’ll take it anyway.) Thanks FeatureBook.com.
Better plotted than a glossary, more riveting than a thesaurus, more filmable than a Harry Potter index–and that’s just Brohaugh’s footsnorts–I mean feetsnotes–um, feetsneets?–good gravy I’m glad I’m just a cartoonist.
That’s from John Caldwell, more-or-less homeless resident cartoonist with Mad magazine. Thanks, John. I think.
That’s the introduction. Rants to follow in succeeding posts, when I can’t expect the above-mentioned good folks to do my work for me. But I’ll leave you with one last quote:
Everything you know about English is the sort of errant pedantry up with which I shall not put.
That was not said by Winston Churchill. And the familiar-sounding quote often attributed to him was not said by him, either. And such things are the entire point of the book.
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and 
. Feel free to 
