Another sleet-astical winter morning: the perfect time to warm over your frozen brainpain by applying it to some trivial labor. A double answer is required in today's quiz:
While reading the scene in Lawrence's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy in which Uncle Toby spares the life of a fly, this famous figure is said to have remarked, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for ----- and me." He referred here to another well-known personage.
Who was the speaker? And to whom was he referring?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a raisin that bears an astonishing resemblence to Burgess Meredith. No Googling or working the phones. One guess per comment, but comment as often as you like.
Disraeli and Gladstone?
Posted by: Scraps on February 6, 2004 10:19 AMNeither Disraeli, nor Gladstone; nor Palmerston, nor Pitts Elder or Younger...
Posted by: BT on February 6, 2004 10:27 AMAaron Burr on Alexander Hamilton?
Posted by: KF on February 6, 2004 10:30 AMLex Luthor on Superman?
Posted by: Scraps on February 6, 2004 10:37 AMYou've got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Kathleen. I mean it -- she's on the West Coast, and still got the right answer in ahead of a whole Eastern Seaboard-worth of quizlings.
It was indeed Burr, on the man he shot with the sort of devilish sang-froid that's rare in a Vice President (but not unheard of).
Now that Kathleen has put an early end to the competition, perhaps I can amuse you with a more out-of-the-way bit of Revolution-era trivia. Burr wrote the following of another of his contemporaries, who served in the war under the hard-drinking William Alexander, who laid dubious claim to the Scottish title of Lord Stirling: " -----'s whole duty [during the Revolution] was to fill his lordship's tankard and hear, with indications of admiration, his lordship's long stories about himself." This underling went on to greater fame than Burr, and indeed became something of a byword for American power. Who was he describing?
(By the way, It's amazing, isn't it -- the whole Seaboard playing the quiz every week? Taking time out from all the various maritime tasks -- the swabbing, the harbor-dredging, the lobster-pot-checking -- that pile up, just to play along. Don't think I'm not grateful, mateys!)
Oscar Wilde on Emily Dickinson
Looks like it's gonna be a long day.
Posted by: Jonathan on February 6, 2004 11:10 AMMonroe?
Posted by: Scraps on February 6, 2004 11:12 AMProblem with my buzzer
Posted by: Jonathan on February 6, 2004 11:13 AMJimmy Hoffa?
Posted by: The Teamsters on February 6, 2004 11:19 AMWell, if you're talking Sterne the answer must be lesbians.
Posted by: teenidol on February 6, 2004 11:36 AMWhoo-hoo! The one goofy bit of junior-year American History I paid attention to finally returns on my investment!
One tries, of course, to imagine any of our current "elected" leaders saying such reflective things about their reading habits:
"If only I'd read more Sherman Alexie and less Louis L'Amour, I'd have realized..."
"If only I'd read more John Le Carre and less Tom Clancy, I'd have known..."
Posted by: KF on February 6, 2004 11:40 AMThinking of one guy at the top of the heap, I'm not sure what the more is, but the less is probably Bazooka Joe.
KF's juxtapositions are most excellent, though.
Posted by: Scott on February 6, 2004 11:55 AMIf only I'd read more Gallant and less Goofus.
Posted by: Scraps on February 6, 2004 12:04 PMMore Prince Valliant and less Beatle Bailey.
Posted by: Jonathan on February 6, 2004 01:21 PMBeatle Bailey: the Lazy Beatle.
One can only assume that BT is stuck in the galley attending to a bearnaise, since I assume Monroe is in fact correct.
Posted by: Jonathan on February 6, 2004 03:11 PMIncidentally, on relating the topic of last week's quiz to my wife, she responded with the following camp song, complete with hand motions:
"Dewey was the grass on an early day in May [fingers sprinkling],
Dewey was the admiral at Manila Bay [salutes],
Dewey were her eyes as she bid her love adieu [wipes away tears],
Dewey love each other, I should say we do [big self hug]."
Admiral versus commodore notwithstanding, I think we mortals should be glad she doesn't play the quiz.
Heard the other night: "And where's my Hello Kitty scapular, dammit?"
Wow. I'm simply agog at that rhyme. Did she go to camp in 1933?
Does she have a similar song about the Monroe Doctrine? Maybe a jump-rope ditty, "Jimmy said to Russia and to France/When you come to our house you can't dance/Teddy added in a year or two/We reserve the right to bomb Peru."
Monroe indeed was one of many targets of Burr's despite. Well done, Scraps.
As for my galley-slavery, I was busy stiching together next week's book clubs page, which I am proud to say I did without employing the words "luminous" or "evocative."
Posted by: BT on February 6, 2004 04:26 PMHow about "haunting"?
Posted by: Scraps on February 6, 2004 04:35 PMNo, but I plead guilty to "exuberant" and "moving" (not on the same title, though).
Posted by: BT on February 6, 2004 04:46 PMAs the resident non-sequitir, or at least barely-sequitir specialist, let me just add that I can never remember whether Burgess Meredith is dead or alive thanks to that damn Rocky movie. I had the same problem with Jack Lemmon and Grumpier Old Men, which is exactly the sort of movie one watches over a holiday with my family, until he actually died. I think.
Posted by: Scott on February 6, 2004 04:55 PMRe: the Book Clubs
I am a little concerned that reading the "dazzling," "brilliant" and "resplendent" "The Confessions of Max Tivoli" may damage my corneas.