SEPTEMBER 30 - A little tea and sympathy (and censorship)

Back in my college days, I tended to snigger at drug references in rock songs. So, I often sniggered when I heard Mick Jagger sing the lines in the Rolling Stones’ 1969 song “Let It Bleed” that go:

“Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me
And there will always be a space in my parking lot
When you need a little coke and sympathy”

Nowadays, I’m more amused by the fact that Jagger and his songwriting partner Keith Richards were riffing on the phrase “tea and sympathy.”

That phrase was popularized by the play Tea and Sympathy, written by American playwright Robert Anderson (1917-2009). It debuted at the Barrymore Theatre in New York City on September 30, 1953.

Since then, the phrase “tea and sympathy” has been used to mean lending a troubled person a sympathetic ear.

But the play was an early, groundbreaking exploration of the issue of sexual identity. So, it’s also sometimes said with a nudge-nudge-wink-wink – as in, giving someone sympathy as a ploy to seduce them.

In the play, a sexually ambiguous teenage boy at a boarding school gets harassed for not meeting the manliness standards of the day.

The boy, named Tom, is befriended by a faculty member’s lonely wife, Laura, originally played by Deborah Kerr.

In Act One her unlikeable husband tells her:

"All you're supposed to do is every once in a while give the boys a little tea and sympathy."

She ends up offering Tom a bit more than hubby had in mind. This leads to a famous quote from the play.

In the last scene, after leaving her husband, Laura lets Tom know she wants to help him clear up his sexuality and says:

“Years from now, when you talk about this – and you will – be kind.”

In the play, that’s the closing line. But in the 1956 movie version, which also starred Deborah Kerr, the absurdities of the Hays Code forced an epilogue to be added.

MGM worried that the play’s original ending would violate the Code’s rules requiring non-marital sex to be portrayed as immoral. So the studio tacked on some asinine scenes that flash forward ten years. Tom is seen as a manly married man and Laura regrets her sinful behavior.

I wonder how Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would have rewritten the ending.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 30.

• “This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor.  I believe it is peace for our time.” - The infamous comment made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, on September 30, 1938, after the Munich Conference, where he tried to appease Adolf Hitler by allowing Germany to have Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. It didn’t work.

• “We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it.” - Ad slogan for the Smith Barney investment firm, famously spoken in TV ads featuring the British actor John Houseman. Smith Barney’s trademark filing for the phrase says the company first used it in commerce on September 30, 1979.

SEPTEMBER 29 - Not Fade Away: R.I.P. William Safire

On September 29, 1957, American rock music pioneer Buddy Holly and his band the Crickets released a record with “Oh Boy” on one side and “Not Fade Away” on the other.

Of the two songs, “Not Fade Away” is the most famous. It’s a classic rock ode with a Bo Diddley beat about a boy whose love for a girl is “bigger than a Cadillac” – a love that’s real “and not fade away.”

Holly was killed in a plane crash on February 3, 1959 (called “the day the music died” by Don Maclean in his 1971 song “American Pie”). But Holly’s music still lives on, as does the phrase “not fade away.”

In addition to showing up as a phrase in headlines and articles, it has been used as the title of several books about Holly’s short but musically influential life, the title of several compilations of his recordings and the title of a tribute album.

It may be that Holly got his inspiration for the phrase from the Bible.

I Peter 5:4 says: “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

As I started writing this post, I heard about the death yesterday of a one of the greatest modern experts on the origins and uses of famous quotations and phrases – William Safire.

In his broad and varied career, Safire was a journalist, a political consultant and speechwriter, and the author of a long list of non-fiction and fiction books.

In the realm of quotations he’s a giant for the incredible wealth of information he uncovered and provided in his “On Language” column in the New York Times Magazine.

Safire is also responsible for some famous quotations himself. His best known lines were in a speech he wrote for President Nixon’s feisty, ill-fated Vice President, Spiro Agnew, which Agnew delivered on September 11, 1970:

“In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.  They have formed their own 4-H Club – the ‘hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.’”

I have long been an avid reader of Safire’s “On Language” column. I think his Political Dictionary is one of the best books on word, phrase and quote origins ever written.

And, though he’ll be missed, I’m sure his great body of work won’t fade away.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 29:

• “You rang?” and “Work!?!” - Catchphrases of Bob Denver as the Hollywoodized beatnik Maynard G. Krebs in the American TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which debuted on CBS on September 29, 1959.

• “thirtysomething” – Term coined or at least popularized by the ABC primetime TV drama of that name, which debuted on September 29, 1987.

SEPTEMBER 28 - "Say it ain't so, Joe" actually wasn’t so.

One of the most famous quotes in sports history is said to have occurred on September 28, 1920.

That was the day “Shoeless Joe” Jackson supposedly admitted to a grand jury that he was one of eight Chicago White Sox baseball players who took bribes to let the Cincinnati Reds win the 1919 World Series.

It came to be known as the “Black Sox scandal” and it was devastating for baseball fans.

On that September 28th in 1920, a crowd of fans were gathered outside the Cook County Courthouse where Jackson was testifying. Word spread among them that their hero had admitted he’d helped throw the series to the Reds.

According to legend, as Jackson left the courthouse, a heartbroken young boy went up to him and begged: “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”

I say “legend” because there are holes in this old story.

There’s no court record of Jackson admitting he was involved in fixing the game – and he always denied it. In fact, in 1921, he was found innocent by a Chicago jury.

In addition, quotation experts have determined that the legendary quote is a misquote of a quote that was probably fabricated by a reporter in the first place.

One of the best overviews of the facts is in Ralph Keyes’ terrific quote debunking book, Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations.

As noted by Keyes, an Associated Press sportswriter named Hugh Fullerton was at the courthouse when Shoeless Joe left it that day.

In the original version of the story he filed, Fullerton wrote that a young kid approached Jackson as he emerged and said: “It ain’t so, Joe, is it?” Fullerton wrote that Jackson replied “Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is.”

Somehow, by 1940, “It ain’t so, Joe, is it?” had morphed into “Say it ain’t so, Joe” in rewritten accounts of the incident.

But no other eyewitness accounts corroborate either version of the quote. And, Jackson himself denied any such thing was said to him by a kid or anyone else that day.

So, basically, the quote and story were apparently made up by a reporter – and then distorted further in later press accounts.

Hmmm. Somehow, I am not surprised.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 28:

• “Progress is our most important product.” - Famed (and mocked) ad slogan of the General Electric Company. GE’s trademark filing for the slogan says it was first used in commerce on September 28, 1952.

• “Make it so!” - The catchphrase of Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, in the science fiction TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which first aired on September 28, 1987.

SEPTEMBER 27 - Remember when we used to “Fly the friendly skies?”

Several airline advertising slogans have become memes in our culture even though the airlines that used them no longer exist. For example...

“It’s the only way to fly!” – The famed ad slogan used by Western Airlines, starting in 1956, which became a familiar saying.

“If you've got it, flaunt it” - The ad slogan used by Braniff Airways, starting in late 1968 or early 1969. It was apparently inspired by the famous line said by Zero Mostel in Mel Brooks’ great 1968 comedy movie, The Producers: “That's it baby, when you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt It!”

“I'm [Name]. Fly me.” (e.g., “I’m Cheryl. Fly me.”) - The suggestive ad slogan used by National Airlines in the 1970s.

Another famous airline ad slogan that’s still quoted is “Fly the friendly skies of United.”

According to the U.S. Trademark Database, “Fly the friendly skies of United” it was first used in commerce by United Airlines on September 27, 1965.

It was created by legendary American ad man Leo Burnett, who also created such cultural icons as the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Charlie the Tuna and Tony the Tiger.

In the vintage United Airlines TV ads and print ads that used the slogan, it looked like it would be a pleasure to fly in those comfy seats, being taken care of by those happy, friendly ladies-who-were-still-called-stewardesses-not-flight-attendants.

“Fly the friendly skies” was the airline industry’s longest running marketing message. It was finally retired in 1997.

United replaced it with the unmemorable one-word ad slogan “Rising” (which didn’t make it into the quotation books).

Unlike the airlines that had the other famous ad taglines I mentioned, United is still flying. In fact, despite various rocky financial periods it’s one the biggest surviving airlines.

However, given the high-security, delay-ridden, pay-for-all-extras, cattle-car experience of air travel today, United’s “Fly the friendly skies” slogan is now generally cited in jest or derision.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 27:

• “It ain’t over till it’s over.” – One of the famous “Yogiisms” by baseball player and manager Yogi Berra (b. 1925), commenting on the 1973 National League pennant race when the New York Mets lost 8-5 to Montreal on September 27, 1973.

• “The Silent Spring.” - Title of the groundbreaking book that became an environmental rallying cry, written by American biologist Rachel Carson (1907-1964) and released on September 27, 1962.

SEPTEMBER 24 - Oh, Watson, Sherlock wants the needle. Quick!

There are several well known Sherlock Holmes quotes and phrases from the classic detective stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930).

For example, there’s “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Versions of this Holmesian maxim were used in several Sherlock stories, beginning with “The Sign of Four” (1890).

There’s the famed phrase “a three-pipe problem” from "The Red-Headed League" (1891); “The game is afoot” from “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” (1904); and, “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” (curious because the dog did nothing) in “Silver Blaze” (1893).

There are also two famous Sherlock Holmes quotations that weren’t in the original stories.

In Doyle’s tale “The Crooked Man” (1893), Sherlock does say “Elementary” to his friend Doctor Watson. However, he doesn’t say “Elementary, my dear Watson.” That quote actually comes from Sherlock Holmes movies. It was first used in the film The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), which starred Clive Brook as Sherlock, and was further popularized by its use in later Holmes flicks.

And, there’s nothing even close to the oft-quoted line “Quick, Watson, the needle” in A.C. Doyle’s stories. That comes from a comedic operetta titled The Red Mill (1906), which premiered on Broadway on September 24, 1906. (Thus solving the mystery of how today’s post on This Day in Quotes is linked to September 24th.)

That old operetta is not a Sherlock Holmes story. The “needle” line is a quip by a con man who is impersonating Sherlock as part of a scam. But somehow it became famous as “a Sherlock Holmes quote.”

The 1939 film Hound of the Baskervilles further confused the facts about whether it was “real” Sherlock quotation. In that film – one of the best of a series Holmes films that starred Basil Rathbone as the sleuth – Basil as Holmes says “Oh, Watson, the needle.”

There’s no quote like that in Doyle’s stories. But the stories do tell us that Sherlock was a user of both cocaine and morphine. In “A Study in Scarlet” (1887), Watson comments that he often found Sherlock in a dreamlike state and “suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic.”

Three years later, in Doyle’s “The Sign of Four,” fans of Sherlock first read about the “seven-percent-solution.”

As that story begins, Watson sees Sherlock injecting himself with a needle and notices ugly track marks on his arm. “Which is it today,” Watson asks, “morphine or cocaine?”

“It is cocaine,” Sherlock replied, “a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?”

Since then, the drug habit of the world’s greatest detective has sparked continuing controversy, articles, books and a great movie, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976).

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 24:

• “Who are those guys?” - Repeated question posed by Robert Redford to Paul Newman in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which was released in the U.S. on September 24, 1969.

• “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Famed grunge song title and lyric by the band Nirvana, written by Kurt Cobain, from the Nevermind album – which was released on September 24, 1991.

• “In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country.” - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia University in New York, September 24, 2007. 

SEPTEMBER 22 - “Slowly I turned…”

September 22 is the anniversary of the most widely known version of an old vaudeville routine – the “Slowly I turned” shtick.

In this classic comedy bit, the name of a certain place causes a husband to recall how his wife ran away with another man and how he took his revenge on the wife-stealer when he found him.

The Three Stooges made “Niagara Falls” that place in their short film Gents Without Cents, which was released on September 22, 1944.

Today, most people know what comes after “Niagara Falls,” even if they never saw that Stooges film:

“Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch...”

As he says these words the husband gets so worked up he starts demonstrating on an innocent listener how he smacked, poked, punched and otherwise took his revenge on the wife-stealer. When the poor listener is reeling from the blows, the husband suddenly realizes what he’s doing, stops and apologizes.

Ah, but then, the listener accidentally mentions the place name again – triggering another “Slowly I turned” rant and another beating.

In Gents Without Cents, the Stooges do a stage show in which Moe and Larry both get triggered by “Niagara Falls” and Curly is the recipient of their smacks, pokes and punches.

Other comedians, such as Joey Faye and Abbott and Costello, did their own versions of the routine before and after the Stooges, using other trigger words.

But, for some reason, the Three Stooges’ Niagara Falls version is the one that has stuck in our language and brains. Along with those eloquent words: “Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk!”

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 22:

• “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” - The famed words of Nathan Hale before he was hung as a rebel spy by the British on September 22, 1776. Hale was a school teacher before the American Revolution and was probably inspired by a line he knew from Joseph Addison's play, Cato (1713): “What pity is it, That we can die but once to serve our country!”

• “Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!” – The most quoted line from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Building of the Ship,” which he composed on September 22, 1849.

SEPTEMBER 21 - A woman, two Jews, and a cripple

Lately, when politicians and bureaucrats say stupidly offensive things, they increasingly seem to be doing it on purpose, to get press attention. The more classic style of stupidly offensive quotes by politicians and bureaucrats are those that aren’t necessarily intended to generate firestorms in the press.

One famous example of the latter occurred on September 21, 1983.

James G. Watt (b. 1938), who had been appointed as U.S. Secretary of the Interior by President Ronald Reagan, was giving a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. At one point, he explained the diversity of the members of the U.S. Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing with this dunderheaded description:

“We have every kind of mix you can have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple.”

Even for that less politically correct era, it was a stupendously idiotic remark to make in a public speech with reporters present. Naturally, it created a huge flap.

It wasn’t the only controversy Watt generated – or the only flap he managed to create in 1983.

Before Reagan appointed him Secretary of the Interior in 1981, Watt was a lawyer who specialized in representing property owners in fights against environmental protection regulations. So, his appointment itself was highly controversial.

Once in office, the policies he pursued were – as feared by environmentalists – geared more toward opening America’s national parks and preserves to development than protecting them. Naturally, that outraged environmental groups.

But they weren’t the only groups Watt managed to annoy and insult.

For example, in January of 1983 Watt said: “If you want an example of the failures of socialism, don’t go to Russia, come to America and go to the Indian reservations.”

Later that year, he angered rock and roll fans by prohibiting The Beach Boys from playing their annual Fourth of July concert at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Watt said he banned the Beach Boys because rock concerts attracted “an undesirable element.”

Then came the uproar over Watt’s September 21 remark about “a woman, two Jews, and a cripple.”

That finally led President Reagan to force Watt to resign.

Since then, Watt has continued to annoy various people and groups, but not quite as famously.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 21:

• “The Star Spangled Banner” (you know the words) - Francis Scott Key's patriotic poem, later put to music and enshrined as America's National Anthem, was first published in The Baltimore American on September 21, 1814. 

• “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” – The famous line in an editorial by American newspaper editor Francis P. Church, published in the New York Sun on September 21, 1897.

• “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” – Statement by President Bill Clinton, when asked if there is any sex involved in his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, in videotaped grand jury testimony given August 17, 1998 but not released publicly until September 21, 1998.

SEPTEMBER 20 - The bridge between the living and the dead

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is the second novel by the American writer Thornton Wilder (1897- 1975). It was first published in a limited edition – just 1,100 copies – exactly 80 years ago, on September 20, 1929.

I’ll put a **SPOILER ALERT** here because I’m going to give you a brief summary of the plot and punchline. But, the fact is, this won’t really spoil the novel for you.

In 1714, five people crossing a long-standing bridge in Peru are killed when it suddenly collapses. A Franciscan monk, Brother Juniper, witnesses this accident and wonders if he can discover why God did it, or let it happen.

Brother Juniper talks to family and friends of the victims, who came from various backgrounds and levels of society, to see if he can make sense of the tragedy.

He records what he learns and what he thinks about it in a book.

The Spanish Inquisition finds out about Brother Juniper’s book and decides it’s heretical, because it seemingly questions and attempts to justify the mysterious ways of God to man. So, they torture him and burn him at the stake – along with the book.

In the last pages of the novel, a kindly Abbess who knew some of the accident victims ponders what has happened.

She observes the grief and love of the family members, and also observes the poor and sick people being taken care of at her convent.

She comes to an oft-quoted conclusion, which is the last line of the novel:

“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

As a snotty high school kid, I wasn’t really moved by The Bridge of San Luis Rey or it’s famous stinkin’ quotation. Today, as a 59-year-old married man, father and grandfather, I am.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 20:

• “You're desthpicable!” - Daffy Duck’s lisping catchphrase, first uttered in the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Rabbit Seasoning," which was released on September 20, 1952.

• “I've committed adultery in my heart many times.” - The famed personal revelation by President Jimmy Carter in a Playboy magazine interview. The interview was in the November 1976 issue, but Playboy released it in advance on September 20, 1976 as a publicity move. It worked.

SEPTEMBER 19 - Hanging: it concentrates the mind wonderfully

British lawyer and diarist James Boswell recorded many witticisms by Samuel Johnson in his journal. They ended up in Boswell’s noted biography of the great lexicographer and author, Life of Johnson (1791).

One of the most quoted Johnson quips is in Boswell’s entry for September 19, 1777. It was this bit of gallows humor:

"When a man knows he is to be hanged...it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

Johnson said this about an Anglican clergyman named William Dodd, who was executed by hanging at England’s Tyburn prison on June 27, 1777.

Dodd’s crime was a loan scam.

He had asked a money lender for a sizeable loan that he claimed was for his former student, the 5th Earl of Chesterfield. That young gent was son of the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, known for those famous letters to his son that included platitudes like: “Take care of the minutes: for the hours will take care of themselves.”

Dodd pocketed the loan money and, when it wasn’t repaid, his scam was revealed. He was tried and sentenced to death. But some people, including Samuel Johnson, thought that seemed a bit harsh.

So, Johnson tried to help by penning an eloquent, Bible-quoting plea for mercy that was released publicly – under Dodd’s name – in an effort to persuade the court to let him live.

It didn’t work. Dodd was hung anyway, alongside another criminal named Joseph Harris.

But the entreaty Johnson had ghost written was soon published with the title  The Convict’s Address to His Unhappy Brethren. It was initially credited to Dodd and it became quite popular.

In his journal entry for September 19, 1777, Boswell noted that a friend of Johnson’s told the great man he suspected Dodd didn’t write the piece himself, because it was so good.

“Why should you think so?” responded Johnson. “Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

Johnson’s authorship was eventually revealed and The Convict’s Address is now generally – and properly – credited to him.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 19:

• “No one in this world, so far as I know – and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me – has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” - H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), American journalist, editor and lexicographer, in the Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1926. Usually misquoted as “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

• “Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage.” – The song “Love and Marriage”, lyrics by Sammy Cahn, music by Jimmy Van Heusen. Introduced by Frank Sinatra in the 1955 television production Our Town, which aired on the Producers' Showcase series on September 19, 1955.

SEPTEMBER 18 - Was Lincoln a Great Emancipator or a Great Obfuscator?

An Abraham Lincoln quotation that is often noted in modern, clear-eyed accounts of his life comes from one of his debates with Stephen Douglas, during their 1858 contest for an Illinois Senate seat in Congress.

At the time, white male voters were the only voters and most were racist. So, Douglas had been doing his best to scare them into thinking Lincoln was an unqualified abolitionist and an advocate of “mixed race” marriage.

In the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate, held on September 18, 1858, Lincoln responded. He said:

“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”

Lincoln went on to say: “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”

How does this now oft-cited quote square with the old traditional image of Lincoln “The Great Emancipator” who “freed the slaves” with his Emancipation Proclamation?

Well, in a nutshell, the Civil War wasn’t really a war to free the slaves. And, the Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime strategy employed by Lincoln. It only “freed” slaves in Confederate states, to encourage them to leave their Southern masters and hopefully disrupt the Southern economy and war effort.

In the Northern states, slavery wasn’t legally abolished until the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1865.

Lincoln’s pandering speech to voters on September 18, 1858 doesn’t mean he wasn’t a great man. It just means that he was complex – like real people and real politics really are. 

It’s a fitting time to read more about this great and complex man, since 2009 is the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 18:

“Bring ‘em Back Alive.” - Wildlife collector Frank Buck’s signature catchphrase, which he used as the title of a best selling book copyrighted on September 18, 1930.

“Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more...” - The hit song by Ray Charles (written by Percy Mayfield) which entered Billboard’s Top 40 music chart on September 18, 1961.

“Men Behaving Badly.” - The title of a British TV sitcom that ran from 1992 to 1998. It was creeping into American vernacular, but was fully embedded in our language here when an Americanized version of the show started airing on September 18, 1996.

SEPTEMBER 17 - Don’t tase me, bro! And you can quote me on that!

The Internet created a new mechanism by which quotations can become famous, especially quotes that would probably not be famous otherwise. Depending on how much you’re into the Web, you may or may not know quotes like “All your base are belong to us” and “I Can Has Cheezburger?”

Those are quotes made famous by Internet sites. And, in recent years, the rapid growth of YouTube has added a new, lightning-fast way for quotes to spread around the world and become famous literally overnight.

One of the most best known examples is a quote that was blurted out on September 17, 2007.

It was on that date that a vocal college student in Florida said those unforgettable words: “Don’t tase me, bro.”

In case you live in a cave and don’t know the story of this oddly famous quote, here’s the short form.

On September 17, 2007, Senator John Kerry gave an address to students at the University of Florida in Gainesville. As the Q&A period was ending, 21-year-old student Andrew Meyer grabbed a microphone, started ranting about political conspiracy theories, insulting Kerry and talking about how President Bill Clinton was impeached for getting a b-job.

The University police decided that was going a bit over the top and started to forcibly remove Meyer from the auditorium. He resisted. The cops warned him to go quietly or get zapped with a taser gun. Meyer yelled out “Don’t tase me, bro.” They tased him – and arrested him.

Someone managed to take video of the hubbub and posted it on YouTube. Within a day, the incident and Meyers’ phrase were known to millions of people. The regular news outlets picked it up and made it even more famous.

Indeed, quote maven Fred Shapiro, author of the great Yale Book of Quotations designated “Don’t tase me, bro” as the most memorable quote of 2007. And, “tase” was listed as the word of the year by the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The incident also spawned t-shirts and other accessories that featured the phrase, various video and musical parodies and a long, detailed entry in Wikipedia.

After being arrested that September 7th, Meyer spent a brief time in jail for his uppity actions.

If the young whippersnapper had been able to see the examples of civil discourse set by adults who oppose President Obama’s health care plan, he’d have known that if he’d carried an automatic weapon and yelled something like “You lie!” he could have avoided the hoosegow.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 17:

• “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” – Famous chilling chant from William Golding's novel about castaway boys, Lord of the Flies, first published on September 17, 1954.

• “There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, ‛Wanted: Dead or Alive.’” - President George W. Bush, responding to a question about his plans for Osama bin Laden, September 17, 2001.

SEPTEMBER 15 - Danger, Will Robinson! We’re Lost in Space!

In addition to being a fan of old TV westerns, like Have Gun – Will Travel, I’m also a fan of vintage science fiction shows. Even bad ones, if they’re bad enough to be good.

So, I’m using this September 15th post to mention the famous quotes from the good-bad sci-fi series Lost in Space, which debuted 44 years ago on September 15, 1965.

This campy show popularized several catchphrases – including the series title itself.

Prior to 1965, the phrase “lost in space” had been used occasionally. (I checked in NewspaperArchive.com). But the series is what made it a common term.

Lost in Space was a variation of the classic Swiss Family Robinson castaway story.

The premise is set up in the debut episode. The Robinson family has volunteered to be first American space pioneers sent via spaceship – from the "desperately overcrowded" Earth of the year 1997 – to establish a colony on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.

There’s the father, Professor John Robinson (actor Guy Williams), his wife Maureen (June Lockhart), their curvaceous teenage daughter Judy (Marta Kristen), and their two younger kids, Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Will (Billy Mumy).

The other crew members are spaceship pilot Major Don West (Mark Goddard), who has the hots for Judy, and a Robbie-like robot who is just called The Robot.

The day they are set to leave Earth in their saucer-like ship, its vital controls are sabotaged by the evil (but snarkily funny) scientist, Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris). He’s working for some unnamed “foreign power” that wants to beat the USA in the space colonization race.

In the process of doing his dirty work, Smith accidentally traps himself on board when the craft takes off. Then, because of his handiwork, the ship goes into an uncontrolled hyperdrive that sends it into some unknown sector of the universe.

After that, the Robinsons, Major Don, Dr. Smith and the robot have 82 more episodes worth of campy castaway adventures, which typically involved dealing with some hokey-looking aliens on cheesy-looking sets. (You can watch them all on Hulu, if you can take it.)

Throughout the series, the robot regularly used two catchphrases that are still heard today: “Does not compute” and “Danger, Will Robinson!”

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 15:

• “Keep the home-fires burning.” - Song title and lyric by Ivor Novello, copyrighted on September 15, 1915.

• “Live long and prosper.” - Vulcan greeting first heard on the Star Trek episode “Amok Time,” which was first aired on September 15, 1967.

• “You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!” - Al Pacino in the 1979 movie ...And Justice for All, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 15, 1979.

SEPTEMBER 14: Have Gun – Will Travel. Paladin lives on!

Today, the linguistic formula “Have [whatever] - Will [do something]” is firmly cemented into our language. Prior to 1957, it wasn’t.

Then, on September 14, 1957, the great western TV series Have Gun – Will Travel premiered on the CBS network. 

After that, variations of the show’s pithy title became about as common as variations of “Got milk?” have become since that slogan was first used in 1993.

Have Gun – Will Travel starred Richard Boone as the main character, Paladin. Yep, just Paladin – period. One name.

Paladin was what might be called a problem solving consultant, though most people thought of him as a professional gunfighter for hire.

He tried to make sure he only worked for people who were on the right side of some issue or problem. And, he also tried to settle things without violence if he could. But he could draw and fire a gun faster than, well, anyone he had to deal with in the show.

So, if you drew against Paladin, you were probably both a bad guy and stupid. And dead.

In work mode, Paladin dressed in black and wore a Colt 45 six-shooter. When he wasn’t working, he lived the life of a fancily-dressed dude in San Francisco.

That’s where people could contact him, as noted in his enigmatic business card, which had the image of a chess knight (a.k.a. a paladin) and the words:

“Have Gun Will Travel. Wire Paladin. San Francisco.”

Any messages that came for him would usually be delivered by the other regular character in the series, Hey Boy. Hey Boy was a Chinese bellhop at Paladin’s residence, the Carlton Hotel, and kind of an on-call gofer for Paladin.

Have Gun – Will Travel aired for six glorious seasons, until 1963. I watched it every week when I was a kid, on my family’s grainy black-and-white TV.

Now, the show is available on DVD and on the CBS “classics” webcasting site. I don’t think they make many shows as great as Have Gun – Will Travel nowadays. But I will admit the technology for watching it is better.

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 14:

• “Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries.” - Hit song from the stage show George White’s Scandals of 1931, which opened at the Apollo Theatre in New York City on September 14, 1931.

• “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.” - President Calvin Coolidge, in a famous telegram about the Boston police strike that he sent to Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, on September 14, 1919.

• “Say It loud: ‘I’m Black and I'm Proud’” - Hit song by James Brown, which entered Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart on September 14, 1968.

SEPTEMBER 12 - Subliminal advertising and subliminable rats

On September 12, 1957, market researcher James Vicary held a press conference that made a new term famous.

Vicary claimed to have developed “hidden” ads that could be used in movies and TV shows. Ads that flashed by so quickly they were not consciously noticed by viewers, but affected their buying habits. He coined the term “subliminal advertising” to describe them and it gained widespread attention from claims he made at his press conference.

Vicary said he’d conducted a six-week experiment at a movie theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey. As viewers watched the movie Picnic, he used special equipment to flash two phrases on the screen for one three-thousandth of a second every five seconds – so fast that they were below the threshold of conscious perception.

One hidden message was “Hungry? Eat popcorn.” The other was “Drink Coca-Cola.”

Vicary claimed his subliminal ads increased Coke sales at the theater by 18% over normal levels and boosted popcorn sales by 57%!

His announcement alarmed the public and the media. In 1958, the National Association of Broadcasters proactively banned the broadcast of subliminal ads.

But scientists who looked into Vicary’s research soon debunked the idea that such ads have any real effect. Then, Vicary admitted he had falsified the data.

Despite that, the bogeyman of “subliminal advertising” was launched into our language and cultural consciousness.

It popped up famously during the 2000 presidential campaign.

An ad used for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign appeared to briefly flash the word “RATS” on screen after showing a photo of the Democratic nominee, Al Gore, while saying that Gore’s health care plan would let bureaucrats make medical decisions.

If you watch the “RATS” ad very closely on YouTube, you will see those letters. They seem to be the tail end of the word “BUREAUCRATS” as that word zooms into the screen. Subliminal advertising? Maybe not.

But the “RATS” ad drew outraged complaints from Democrats and created a media uproar. So, on September 12, 2000, Bush responded to the controversy by saying:

“I wanna make it clear to people that, you know, the idea of putting subliminable messages into ads is, is ridiculous.”

He actually used the Bushism “subliminable” several times that day when addressing the ad hubbub.

And, that’s why the date September 12th is linked to both the original term “subliminal advertising” and to the newer, um, word “subliminable.”

It’s an incredidable coincidence!

SEPTEMBER 11 - They’ll never take our freedom (to rewrite history)

If you saw the 1995 movie Braveheart, you almost surely remember star Mel Gibson in his blue-painted face yelling the famous line “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

If you didn’t, watch the clip on YouTube.

In fact, even if you’ve seen the movie multiple times (like I have), watch that clip again just for the pure goose-bump raising thrill of it. It’s one the greatest pre-battle scenes ever filmed.

Braveheart is based on the true story of the Scottish hero William Wallace, a key leader of the 13th century Scottish rebellion against domination by the English.

Gibson plays Wallace. The famous “freedom” speech is what he uses to convince an outnumbered group of Scots to fight a much larger English army at the historic Battle of Stirling Bridge – which took place on September 11, 1297.

When a Scottish soldier suggests to Gibson/Wallace that it would be better to retreat and live to fight another day, he responds by saying:

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live – at least a while. And, dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!?! Alba gu bra!” *

As things turned out, Wallace inspired his troops to win the Battle of Stirling Bridge. And, the legends that grew up around him inspired Scots to continue and ultimately achieve the goal of Scottish independence. (Unfortunately, Wallace was caught, tortured, disembowled and beheaded before that came to pass.)

There are those who have complained that Braveheart strays more than a wee bit from the factual record.

They note that the Lowland Scots Wallace led didn’t wear kilts, like they do in the movie.

And, the bridge that played a major role in the Battle of Stirling Bridge – by creating a bottleneck that prevented English troops from rolling over the Scots – was nowhere to be seen in the movie.

Sticklers also note there’s no record that William Wallace ever said anything like the famed “freedom” line that’s in the movie.

However, to use a phrase coined by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew exactly 39 years ago today, on September 11, 1970, I think complainers about the historical details of Braveheart are just “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

I’m making “they’ll never take our freedom” the quote of the day for this date.

* In Scottish Gaelic, “Alba gu bra” means “Scotland forever!”

SEPTEMBER 10 - I want to believe the truth is out there!

It has been a year to the day since Barack Obama uttered his controversial “lipstick on a pig” sideswipe at John McCain and Sarah Palin, on September 10, 2008. But I covered that quote in another recent post.

So, for today’s post, I’ve picked two of my favorite TV quotes: “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE” and “I WANT TO BELIEVE.”

Those quotes didn't start out being uttered. They were words on our TV screens, first seen in the pilot episode of The X-Files, which first aired on September 10, 1993.

The glowing words "THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE" memorably loomed against a dark sky at the end of the show's opening credits sequence.

They soon became a well-known and oft parodied phrase. And, since the show was a big hit, its stars soon became stars in the bigger Hollywood sense of the word.

They were Gillian Anderson, playing by-the-book FBI agent and scientist, Dana Scully, and David Duchovny, as her polar opposite partner, Agent Fox Mulder, an alien-paranormal-conspiracy-theory buff.

One of the things that helped establish Mulder’s persona was the poster on the wall of his office. It showed a picture of a flying saucer with the words "I WANT TO BELIEVE."

That became the second famous catchphrase generated by the show. (There was a third. Do you remember it yet?)

The X-Files aired for nine seasons, until 2002. Like Star Trek, it has lived on in movies. The second X-Files movie released in 2008 was titled I Want to Believe.

I did want to believe the second X-Files movie would be better than the kinda blah first one. And, it was.

But my fondest memories are still of the monster-of-the-week X-Files episodes, like “Squeeze,” “The Host” and “Home.”

Trust no one who tells you that the "mytharc" episodes that focused on the show's ongoing mythology-conspiracy arc were as good as those gems.

SEPTEMBER 9 - Happy Birthday, United States of America!

Yes, I said Happy Birthday United States of America. And, yes, I know this is September 9th and not July 4th.

But the fact is, it was on September 9th  – 233 years ago today – that our country was officially named.

Before that, our would-be country was known as the “the United Colonies.” And, that’s the name that was still in use when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

It’s true that the Declaration refers to the “united States of America.”

But look closely at a copy of the Declaration. Zoom in to the last paragraph, five lines above John Hancock’s famously humongous signature.

You'll see that the “u” in “united” is lowercase.

That’s because, in the Declaration, the word “united” was being used as an adjective. It was making the point that the “States of America” (which were not quite states in the current sense yet) were united in pursuing independence from King George and Britain.

The Founding Fathers did apparently notice that the phrase “united States of America” had a certain ring to it.

Shortly after the Declaration was signed, they prepared a draft of the Articles of Confederation for the nascent nation. That draft said: "The name of this Confederacy shall be ‘the United States of America.’”

Then, as things turned out, the Articles of Confederation got sidetracked and weren't officially adopted until 1781.

However, in the fall of 1776, the Congress decided to pass a resolution making the name official.

Here's how it was recorded by John Adams for the Journal of Congress:

"Monday September 9, 1776. Resolved, that in all Continental Commissions, and other Instruments where heretofore the Words, 'United Colonies,' have been used, the Stile be altered for the future to the United States."

Break out the firecrackers!

SEPTEMBER 6 - OMG re: W. and OB-GYNs

Back in January of 1775, British playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals premiered. It introduced a character named Mrs. Malaprop.

Her name was inspired by the French term mal à propos, meaning “inappropriate.” The name reflects the fact that Mrs. Malaprop was very linguistically challenged.

In the play, she said lots of funny things like: “Forget this fellow – illiterate him from memory” (when she meant to say “obliterate him...”).

Mrs. Malaprop’s mangled remarks became famous and spawned the word “malapropism.”

That, in turn, begat other “isms,” like the term “Spoonerisms.” It was created for the legendary slips of tongue made by British Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930). Like the time when he tried to make a cheery toast to Queen Victoria but it came out as “Three cheers for our queer old dean!”

Flash forward to George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States.

Dubya also became renowned for his malaprops. They have been dubbed “Bushisms” – and there are many of them.

Indeed, dozens of books and websites are wholly devoted to Bushisms. And, one example near the top of most lists of Bushisms was uttered on September 6, 2004 – five years ago on this date.

Pres. Bush was in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, giving a stump speech during his campaign to be reelected to his second term as president.

He was criticizing his opponent, Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, for picking a former trial lawyer, Sen. John Edwards, as a vice presidential running mate.

Bush noted that “frivolous lawsuits” by trial lawyers increased malpractice insurance costs for doctors and health care costs for patients.

Then, he added: “Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their, their love with women all across this country.”

This unintentionally salacious and hilarious head scratcher is now enshrined in the Bushism Hall of Fame. As it should be.

SEPTEMBER 5 - Burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles

This next quotation I’m posting, which is linked to September 5th, is not one most of us could recite.

But it’s from a book that had a profound effect on American literature and culture. And, it’s one of the most famous quotes from that book.

So, let’s just say this one is a contribution to the cause of “quotation literacy.”

Here it is:

“They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‛Awww!’”

This quote is from Jack Kerouac’s seminal book On the Road, which was first published on September 5, 1957, fifty-two years ago on this date.

The long, lyrical run-on sentence is an oft-cited example of the “Beat” style of writing Kerouac helped create.

Kerouac is one of the gods of the Beat Generation. In fact, he coined that name, according to his friend and fellow Beat writer John Clellon Holmes and Kerouac himself.

Holmes helped popularize the term “Beat Generation” in his own magazine articles and books. And, he credited it to Kerouac in an article he wrote in the early 1950s.

Kerouac later confirmed it. In an interview published in the June 1959 issue of Playboy magazine, he recalled:

“Holmes and I were sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation’s subsequent existentialism. And I said, ‘You know, this is really a beat generation,’ and he leapt up and said, ‘That’s it, that’s right!’”

On September 5, 1957, the day On the Road was published, there was a review of the novel by critic Gilbert Millstein in the New York Times. He said:

“Just as, more than any other novel of the Twenties, The Sun Also Rises came to be regarded as the testament of the Lost Generation, so it seems certain that On The Road will come to be known as that of the Beat Generation.”

The review turned out to be prophetic.

SEPTEMBER 4 - The birth of billions of “Kodak Moments”

On September 4, 1888, the name “Kodak” was registered as a trademark by American inventor and entrepreneur George Eastman (1954-1932).

Soon thereafter, it became a household word.

Around the same time, Eastman was granted a U.S. patent for his pioneering roll-film still camera. A version was soon named and being sold as the Kodak “Brownie.”

The Brownie was a very big deal at the time, because it was the first camera that could easily be used and afforded by almost anyone. It was light and small, and it was the first relatively simple point-and-shoot camera.

The Brownie came pre-loaded with a roll of film. When all the shots were taken, the owner sent the camera to a Kodak factory, where the film was processed. Then the prints were sent back to the owner along with the camera, reloaded with a new roll of film.

Eastman promoted the Brownie with a slogan he coined. It soon became famous worldwide: “You press the button. We do the rest.”

Eastman also coined the name “Kodak” itself. He apparently made it up out of thin air with the help of his mother. He wanted some word that was short, unlike any other word or product name and easily pronounceable in all languages. And, for some reason,“K” was his favorite letter.

When he registered the trademark for the name on September 4, 1888, he probably couldn’t have guessed how famous it would become.

The Kodak company later implanted the now ubiquitous phrase “Kodak moment” into our language, through an ad campaign that began in 1993.

At that time, execs at Kodak probably couldn’t have guessed that digital cameras would soon change photography in a way as revolutionary as the Brownie did a century ago.

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